• Cat feed hydrotreating
• Mild hydrocracking
• Full conversion hydrocracking
• ULSD hydrotreating
• Kerosene hydrotreating
• Gasoline hydrotreating

•  Lower total capital investments
•  Lower operating utilities
•  Longer catalyst life
•  Reduced cost to the refiner due to higher catalyst efficiency, which allows for smaller reactors and reduced catalyst volume
•  When added to an existing hydrotreater, increased hydrotreating capacity over current operations and longer catalyst life in existing reactor can be realized

MaxFlux^® uses a novel approach that allows much higher flux than conventional trickle bed hydrotreating reactors. The MaxFlux^® hydrotreating reactors operate in a high liquid flux mode that removes the mass transfer limitation. The technology can be installed as a grass roots hydrotreating unit or in a pretreat configuration. In pre-treat configuration, the MaxFlux^® reactor does most of the hydrodesulfurization leaving less work for the existing conventional reactor, which will then operate in a polishing mode. The MaxFlux^® reactor frees the conventional trickle bed reactor from mass transfer limitation. Because of this, catalyst deactivation due to coking in the conventional reactor is drastically reduced. The MaxFlux^® process eliminates the need for large volumes of hydrogen recycle gas as a quench fluid, and instead uses treated oil to deliver more hydrogen to the reactor and stabilize temperature fluctuations. As a result, implementation of the MaxFlux^® process results in significant capital cost savings, less light ends make, and longer catalyst life.

Hydrogen is delivered to the MaxFlux^® reactor by recycling hydrotreated product which acts as an inert hydrogen carrier. Since there is no recycle gas, there is no need for a hot or cold high pressure separator. Only a low pressure separator is required resulting in additional cost savings. Comparing the horsepower of the MaxFlux^® recycle pump to that of the conventional recycle compressor, which is no longer needed, makes it obvious to see that implementation of the MaxFlux^® process results in substantial utility savings as well.

The MaxFlux^® process ensures constant and complete catalyst wetting and ensures that there is always enough hydrogen available in solution inside the MaxFlux^® reactor. Implementing the MaxFlux^® process will result in a drastic reduction in coking and significantly longer catalyst life. Furthermore, the MaxFlux^® process is designed to use conventional, off-the-shelf catalysts.

The capacity of an existing unit can typically be increased substantially by adding a MaxFlux^® reactor ahead of the existing trickle bed reactor. Expanding an existing unit in this fashion is typically less than 50% of the cost of expanding the trickle bed system through conventional means.