The ebullating oil flow is controlled by varying the speed of the

ebullating pump. Within the reactor, the ebullating liquid is drawn into
a conical collecting pan, located several feet above the catalyst bed
interface to ensure catalyst-free liquid circulation down the internal stand
pipe and into external ebullating pump. The ebullating liquid is distrib-
uted through the reactor bottom by its individual sparger.
The height of the fluidized bed of the catalyst in the reactor is related to
the gas flow rate, the liquid flow rate, and the physical properties of the
fluid, which in turn are affected by the operating temperature and pres-
sure, conversion, size, density, and shape of the catalyst particles. All
these parameters are maintained within the constraints imposed by these
correlations.

RESID HYDROCRACKER UNITS

The feed to resid hydrocracker is crude unit vacuum bottoms. Fresh

feed is mixed with a heavy vacuum gas oil diluent. The combined feed
enters surge drum V-33, is pumped to feed heater H-Ol then mixed with
high-pressure recycled hydrogen gas, is preheated in H-02 in mixers, then
fed to the reactor V-Ol at about 7500F and 2450psig (see Figure 3-13).
Ebullation pump P-02 maintains circulation to keep catalyst particles
in suspension. The catalyst bed level is monitored by a radioactive source.
Fresh catalyst is added to the reactor and spent catalyst is withdrawn from
the reactor periodically to maintain the catalyst level.
The reactor effluent flows as a vapor/liquid mixture into vapor/liquid
separator V-02. The vapor from separator drum is a hydrogen-rich stream
containing equilibrium quantities of hydrocarbon reaction products. The
liquid is composed essentially of heavier hydrocarbon products from
resid hydrocracking reactions and unconverted feed. The hot flash liquid
contains an appreciable amount of dissolved hydrogen and light ends. The
flash vapor leaving V-02 is cooled with light distillate in exchanger E-02.
The cooled vapor effluent is then fed to primary distillate knockout drum
V-03 for removal of condensed liquid. Vapor from V-03 is further cooled
to about 1400F in air cooler E-03 and then enters distillate separator drum
V-04. On leaving separator V-04, the hydrogen-rich gas is split into two
streams. The larger stream is compressed to approximately 2700 psig in
a recycle gas compressor and returned to the reactor V-Ol as recycled
gas. The smaller purge gas stream is withdrawn as purge to maintain the
purity of the recycled gas.