abstract
- There are different types of reactors used in the petroleum industry where the hydro-cracking of heavy oils is one of the main processes for converting a heavy carbonaceous feed-stock to lower-boiling point products. Those reactors are fixed-bed reactors, ebullated-bed reactors, and slurry-phase reactors (SPRs). In the modeling of SPRs due to the small diameter of the catalyst particles, it is assumed that there is a very good homogeneity between the solid and liquid phases. The heat transfer coefficients in SPR are many times larger than that for single-phase flow or even in liquid-solid fluidization. A common assumption in the modeling is that the gas and liquid phases are in thermal equilibrium. The usual modeling configuration is in the form of Slurry bubble column reactors in which axial dispersion models are the most common formulation. © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.