Shell High-Dispersion (HD) Trays

Significantly improving liquid distribution and extending cycle length for fixed-bed reactors

Have you considered how you can:

• Increase cycle length and throughput?
• Improve catalyst usage?
• Increase production despite heavier feedstock?
• Develop new, quality products that meet clean fuel specifications?

As product specifications grow more stringent, successful production depends on reactor internals that can outperform standard distribution tray technology. Conventional distribution trays, even advanced bubble-cap designs, are notorious for low uniformity of vapour–liquid distribution and undesirable thermal maldistribution.

The latest generation of Shell HD trays offers high feed rate flexibility and utilises more nozzles per area than the previous generation, thereby providing even better performance for hydroprocessing reactors needing optimisation.

Owing to their excellent vapour–liquid and thermal distribution uniformity, Shell HD trays function equally well as top distribution and interbed distribution trays to aid full catalyst utilisation throughout the reactor. Also, unlike conventional and bubble cap designs that require a deep layer of inert distributive packing, Shell HD trays enable the reactor beds to be filled with active catalyst. 

Proof Point:

When a low-sulphur diesel hydrotreater was retrofitted with a Shell HD tray, the catalyst volume in the reactor was increased by 30% compared with the original configuration (see Figure 2). This enabled production of 50-ppm-sulphur diesel without large revamp costs.