Acid regenerator control
AssigneePhillips Petroleum Company
InventorsGary L. Funk, James A. Feldman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an alkylation process in which an acid regenerator is utilized to separate an acid catalyst from acid soluble oil contained in a spent acid catalyst stream, the heat input to the acid regenerator is manipulated based on the feed flow rate of the spent acid catalyst stream so as to maintain a substantially constant heat input per pound of feed flowing to the acid regenerator and the liquid level in the acid regenerator is manipulated so as to maintain the acid catalyst and acid soluble oil interface in the acid regenerator at a desired level. Such manipulation of the heat input to and the liquid level in the acid regenerator results in a substantially optimum separation of acid catalyst from acid soluble oil.
Claims14
Apparatus comprising:
- an acid regenerator column;
- means for supplying a feed stream containing an acid catalyst for an alkylation process and acid soluble oil to said acid regenerator column;
- means for removing an overhead stream containing a substantial portion of said acid catalyst contained in said feed stream from said acid regenerator column;
- means for removing a bottom stream containing a substantial portion of said acid soluble oil contained in said feed stream from said acid regenerator column;
- means for supplying heat to said acid regenerator column;
- means for establishing a first signal representative of the rate at which heat should be supplied to said acid regenerator column in order to maintain a substantially constant desired heat input to said acid regenerator column per unit of said feed stream;
- means for establishing a second signal representative of the actual rate at which heat is being supplied to said acid regenerator column;
- means for comparing said first signal and said second signal and for establishing a third signal which is responsive to the difference between said first signal and said second signal;
- means for manipulating the rate at which heat is supplied to said acid regenerator column in response to said third signal to thereby maintain the actual rate at which heat is supplied to said acid regenerator column substantially equal to the desired rate represented by said first signal;
- means for establishing a fourth signal representative of the rate at which liquid should be withdrawn from the bottom of said acid regenerator column as said bottom stream in order to maintain a desired liquid level in said acid regenerator column;
- and
- means for manipulating the flow rate of said bottom stream in response to said fourth signal.
A method for controlling the separation of an acid catalyst, for an alkylation process, from acid soluble oil, wherein a feed stream containing said acid catalyst and said acid soluble oil is supplied to an acid regenerator column, wherein an overhead stream containing a substantial portion of the acid catalyst contained in said feed stream is removed from said acid regenerator column as an overhead stream, wherein a substantial portion of said acid soluble oil contained in said feed stream is removed from said acid regenerator column in a bottoms stream and wherein heat is supplied to said acid regenerator column to effect the separation of said acid catalyst from said acid soluble oil, said method comprising the steps of:
- establishing a first signal representative of the rate at which heat should be supplied to said acid regenerator column in order to maintain a substantially constant desired heat input to said acid regenerator column per unit of said feed stream;
- establishing a second signal representative of the actual rate at which heat is being supplied to said acid regenerator column;
- comparing said first signal and said second signal and establishing a third signal which is responsive to the difference between said first signal and said second signal;
- manipulating the rate at which heat is supplied to said acid regenerator column in response to said third signal to thereby maintain the actual rate at which heat is supplied to said acid regenerator column substantially equal to the desired rate represented by said first signal;
- establishing a fourth signal representative of the rate at which liquid should be withdrawn from the bottom of said acid regenerator column as said bottom stream in order to maintain a desired liquid level in said acid regenerator column;
- and
- manipulating the flow rate of said bottom stream in response to said fourth signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.