Kinetic mechanism research of an industrial hydrocracker based on strict calculation of stoichiometric coefficients

Based on the principle of carbon balance in a chemical reaction, a method for calculating the stoichiometric coefficients of every reactant and product in each individual hydrocracking reaction has been developed by using the distribution function in the Stangeland’s model. Consequently, the hydrogen consumption of each individual lump reaction can be calculated accurately, resulting in a correct estimation on the heat of reaction, material balance closure and energy balance closure in each lump reaction process. An application in an industrial VGO hydrocracker shows that the improved model, proposed in this work based on the strict description on each individual lump hydrocracking reaction, can simulate and predict the behavior of the reactor precisely, including the temperature distribution along with the reactor and the yield of products. The model parameters were estimated by using the Genetic Algorithm on the basis of the industrial data.