US-20260124591-A1 - SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING A PERFORMANCE OF A PRODUCTION PLANT

US20260124591A1US 20260124591 A1US20260124591 A1US 20260124591A1US-20260124591-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to improving a performance of a production plant, in particular, in chemical industry. To this end, a method for determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system is provided, the method comprising the steps of:—providing reactor data indicative of a property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system,—providing catalyst configuration data indicative of a property of at least one catalyst present in the catalytic realtor or reactor system,—providing a reactor model associated with the least one catalyst, the reactor model being configured for determining a catalytic reaction within the catalytic reactor or reactor system based on the reactor data and the catalyst configuration data,—determining the reactor performance using the reactor data, the catalyst configuration data and the reactor model, and—providing the determined reactor performance for the provided catalyst configuration.

Inventors

Marco Oskar KENNEMA
Miriam Angela Anna HAHKALA
Olga WALZ
Dirk Hensel

Assignees

BASF SE

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20231012
Priority Date: 20221014

Claims (15)

1 . A method for determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system, the method comprising: providing reactor data indicative of a property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system, providing catalyst configuration data indicative of a property of at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system, providing a reactor model associated with the at least one catalyst, the reactor model being configured for determining a catalytic reaction within the catalytic reactor or reactor system based on the reactor data and the catalyst configuration data, determining the reactor performance using the reactor data, the catalyst configuration data and the reactor model, and providing the determined reactor performance for the provided catalyst configuration.
2 . A method for determining a plant performance of a production plant with a catalytic reactor or reactor system, the method comprising: providing a plant model including reactor data indicative of a property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system and catalyst configuration data indicative a property of at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system; providing based on the reactor data and the catalyst configuration data a reactor performance for the catalytic reactor or reactor system determined according to claim 1 , determining the plant performance of the production plant based on the reactor performance and the plant model, providing the plant performance of the production plant.
3 . A method for providing a target catalyst configuration for a catalytic reactor or reactor system, the method comprising: determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system according to claim 1 , providing one or more target performance(s) for the catalytic reactor or reactor system, the one or more target performance(s) being indicative of a desired performance when using the catalytic reactor or reactor system with the at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system, determining the target catalyst configuration based on the determined reactor performance and the provided target performance(s), and providing the determined target catalyst configuration.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the reactor model includes generating the reactor model based on kinetic parameter(s) for different catalyst types of the at least one catalysts.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the property of the at least one catalyst includes one or more catalyst type(s) and/or a catalyst volume associated with each catalyst type.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the reactor model includes selecting kinetic parameter(s) based on catalyst type(s) of the at least one catalyst.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the kinetic parameter(s) relate to experimental data for different catalyst types.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system includes one or more reactor component(s) that can be filled with a catalyst of the at least one catalyst and/or the property of the at least one catalyst includes catalyst type(s) and volume(s) per reactor component to be filled with a catalyst of the at least one catalyst.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein an aging factor signifying a catalyst deactivation per reactor component is provided, wherein the performance of the reactor is determined by providing the catalyst configuration data, the reactor data and the aging factor per reactor component to the reactor model.
10 . The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the target catalyst configuration with respect to the provided target performance(s) includes an optimization routine determining the target catalyst configuration based on an objective function reaching a target objective.
11 . A method for determining a target catalyst configuration for a production plant, the method comprising: providing a plant model including reactor data and catalyst configuration data of a property of at least one catalyst present in a catalytic reactor or reactor system of the production plant; in a first option comprising: providing one or more target performance(s) for the catalytic reactor or reactor system, providing a target catalyst configuration for the catalytic reactor or reactor system determined according to claim 3 ; determining the plant performance of the production plant based on the target catalyst configuration and the plant model, or in a second option comprising: providing one or more target plant performance(s); providing a reactor performance determined according to claim 1 for at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system, and determining the target catalyst configuration with respect to the provided target plant performance(s) based on the plant model and the reactor performance for one or more catalyst configuration(s), providing the target catalyst configuration, the plant performance and/or the reactor performance of the production plant for the target catalyst configuration.
12 . A method for determining operating conditions for a production plant, the method comprising: providing a plant model and a target plant performance; providing a target catalyst configuration according to claim 3 ; determining operating conditions for the plant based on the catalyst configuration, the plant model and the target plant performance, and providing the operating conditions for monitoring or controlling the production plant.
13 . A computer element including instructions for determining a reactor performance, a plant performance, a catalyst configuration or operating conditions, which when executed on one or more computing device(s), carry out the method of claim 1 .
14 . A use of the catalyst configuration generated according to the method of claim 3 for operating a plug flow reactor, for producing sulfuric acid, for monitoring a filling operation or for operation of a production plant.
15 . A system for determining a reactor performance of a catalytic reactor, a plant performance, a catalyst configuration or operating conditions for a production plant, the system comprising the computer element of claim 13 and one or more computing device(s) configured for executing the instructions included by the computer element.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The invention generally relates to improving a performance of a production plant, in particular, in chemical industry. In particular, the invention relates to a method for determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system, a method for determining a plant performance of a production plant with a catalytic reactor or reactor system, and to a method for providing a target catalyst configuration for a catalytic reactor or reactor system. Moreover, the invention relates to a method for determining a target catalyst configuration for a production plant. Furthermore, respective systems, computer programs as well as computer-readable media for carrying out the methods are provided. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Fixed bed reactors or plug flow reactors are generally used for the synthesis of large-scale basic chemicals or intermediates or to treat toxic or harmful substances. Reactors typically have a layered and, in many cases, multi tubular design. Catalyst material may be provided in the form of pellets that can have different shapes and compositions. Owing to catalyst aging during use, the catalyst requires exchange in certain time intervals. To this end, in a first step, the aged catalyst is removed from a bed and then refilled in adequate volume. Refilling of the catalyst after the lifetime, is often required to meet the performance requirements of the production plant. Performance requirements are for instance yield, capacity, conversion, bed temperature and pressure drop. Yet, there is a large variety of catalysts differing in composition, shape, conversion and yield, making the choice of the optimal catalyst or combination of catalysts a cumbersome task that can lead to suboptimal results. A suboptimal catalyst selection can lead to reduced plant performance resulting in accumulated losses or increased emission levels over the lifetime of the catalyst. Different model approaches to optimize catalytic processes through simulation exist. CN101980230A discloses a catalytic cracking reaction system process simulation optimization model and a solution method thereof. CN102034000B discloses a method for optimizing process operation of catalytic hydrogenation reaction of acetylene in an industrial device. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based on the objective to provide a more reliable approach to determine a reactor performance of a catalytic reactor or reactor system. In particular, the present invention is based on the objective to provide a more reliable approach for improving a performance of a catalyst in a catalytic reactor or reactor system. According to a further objective of the present invention, a more reliable approach to achieve an enhanced plant performance shall be provided. Furthermore, the present invention is based on the objective to provide an efficient, sustainable and reliable way of monitoring and/or controlling the filling of a reactor in a production plant, in particular, the filling of a catalytic reactor or reactor system with a catalyst. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a more reliable approach to determine a target catalyst configuration for a catalytic reactor or reactor system. According to the invention, a method, in particular, a computer-implemented method, for determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system is proposed. The method comprises the steps of: providing reactor data indicative of a property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system, in particular, a digital representation of a property of the catalytic reactor or the reactor system,providing catalyst configuration data indicative of a property of at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system, in particular, a digital representation of a property of at least one catalyst,providing a reactor model associated with the at least one catalyst, the reactor model being configured for determining a catalytic reaction within the catalytic reactor or reactor system based on the reactor data and the catalyst configuration data,determining the reactor performance using the reactor data, the catalyst configuration data and the reactor model, andproviding the determined reactor performance for the provided catalyst configuration. The invention includes the recognition that known methods typically focus on the optimization of plant operations. Such methods often lack reliability for plant operations with catalytic reactors since effects of the catalyst are not adequately included. With the method for determining a reactor performance for a catalytic reactor or reactor system, it is possible to determine an effect of at least one catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system on the reactor performance. It is thus possible to improve a performance of a catalyst present in the catalytic reactor or reactor system. This is possible, e.g., since based on the determined effect of a