Diesel hydrodesulfurization and its impact on fuel market in Ecuador

In this thesis, the hydrodesulfurization process to obtain diesel with low sulfur content was analyzed in a general way, the level of processing in Ecuador, the quality of domestic diesel compared to other countries, the technical and economic needs of the process, in addition to the change or improvement of the catalysts to achieve deep hydrodesulfurization. In the bibliographic review it was found that, unfortunately, the sulfur content is very high in Ecuadorian deposits. In 2018, Ecuador produced 3.53 MMkg of sulfur from the processes. However, despite the improvements in the country's refineries, the sulfur content in diesel has only been reduced to 110 ppm. Currently, Ecuador regulates sulfur emissions through the Ecuadorian standard INEN 1489 (2012), this standard in accordance with the use of diesel and the permitted limit of sulfur content classifies the fuel into three types, Diesel No. 1 (3000 ppm), No. 2 Diesel (7000 ppm) and Premium Diesel (500 ppm). However, Ecuador seeks to adjust with the countries that have stricter regulations, such as the European Union, the standard that regulates sulfur emissions in this community is Euro VI, which limits the concentration to 10 ppm. Some of the changes to reach international standards in the hydrodesulfurization units of the Ecuadorian refineries is to modify the catalytic systems or better them. One of these advances is the use of supported and unsupported trimetallic catalysts. These catalysts manage to decompose the so-called refractory molecules (for example, Dibenzothiophene and 4,6-Dimethyldibenzothiophene) that are found in deep hydrodesulfurization, and that normally used catalysts such as CoMo or MoW cannot do so. An instance of the capacity of these catalysts was the laboratory-scale evaluation of a catalyst made up of NiMoW supported in Al2O3-Ga2O3, Dibenzothiophene was used as a model molecule to evaluate its catalytic capacity through the concentration of S on it. Therefore, proposals such as the use of trimetallic catalysts to achieve deep hydrosulfurization levels are a very viable option for Ecuador. Given that at this time the country is trying to improve its refining processes and is likewise planning to build a new hydrodesulfurization plant and a fuel processing unit under the BOT modality (build, operate and transfer) in Manabí.

• Autor principal: Toro Chalen, Andrea Paola (author)
• Formato: bachelorThesis
• Idioma: eng
• Publicado em: 2020
• Assuntos: Diésel; Azufre; Hidrodesulfuración; Refinerías; Catalizadores trimetálicos; Planta de hidrodesulfuración; Ecuador; Sulfur; Hydrodesulfurization; Refineries; Trimetallic catalyst; Hydrodesulfurization plant
• Acesso em linha: http://repositorio.yachaytech.edu.ec/handle/123456789/247