Badger valves in a biodiesel downstream processing pilot plant

This short article describes how the company ILS-Integrated Lab Solutions in Berlin, Germany – an independent engineering and plant construction office specializing in the design and construction of fully automated, customized reaction systems in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry - has successfully implemented Badger valves to solve a number of challenging problems in a parallel hydrotreating unit, used for oil upgrading. In particular we demonstrate how Badger valves, despite having the same fundamental design in all cases, were successfully used to tackle a wide range of different processing problems.

Pressure control:
The unit in question contains two parallel fixed-bed, trickle-flow (top-down) catalyst testing reactors. Hydrotreating reactions are carried out at elevated pressures (200 bars) in a hydrogen atmosphere. Since this unit is used for process optimization, the client had a strong desire to be able to operate over as broad a flow and pressure range as possible. This is important in order to be able to screen as broad an operation-parameter space as possible to determine the optimal performance conditions.

We implemented Badger control valves operating in a feedback control loop with gold-plated Keller 4-20mA pressure sensors. The valve design allows operation over an exceptionally wide range of upstream pressures of up to 200 bars with single-step pressure regulation to atmospheric pressure on the downstream side.

High-temperature level controller:
Gas/liquid separation is an integral part of any hydrotreating unit. Due to the heavy nature of the oils involved, it is required to maintain the oil at a temperature of 200°C to prevent hardening. The low-liquid flows for a pilot installation of this size (1-5g/min) and high-pressure operation (200 bars) require a high-temperature regulation valve with exceptionally low Cv-values.

We implemented high-temperature, Kalrez-sealed Badger valves operating in feedback control with Siemens Sitrans level sensors to maintain the liquid level of our gas/liquid separators at an operator-defined level.

Low-temperature cooling
A key piece of information needed by any plant operator is the mass balance. During hydrotreating, high-vapor pressure, light-end products are formed in substantial quantities. Extremely low temperatures (-70°C) are required in order to condense these products as efficiently as possible.