Refiner MHC Reactor Pressure Drop RCFA
The Mild Hydrocracker Unit (MHC) at the refinery was limited by the reactor pressure drop on the first bed. Becht was asked to perform a Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) to properly identify the causes behind the pressure drop so that mitigating actions could be taken to improve cycle length.
Becht mobilized a cross-functional team of process and corrosion/materials specialists in order to review information within the battery limits of the MHC as well as outside the unit’s battery limits that could have an impact on the unit pressure drop.
The team determined that the pressure drop was due to a build-up of iron sulfide, potentially coking within the reactor, and to a lesser extent sodium. The sources of the iron sulfide was identified as the Vac Unit and NMP Unit due to poor material selection and operational issues and poor feed filtration efficiency.
Client expressed appreciation for solving a 5+ year problem that the licensor hadn’t identified as it was Outside Battery Limits (OSBL)
The multidiscipline Becht team (Process and Corrosion/Materials) quickly identified the root causes of the issue using a structured methodology that included experienced eyes on the ground that looked beyond the battery limits and leveraged the multidiscipline expertise to provide actionable solutions to mitigate the issue.
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