Optimization of hydrodesulfurization activity in the hydrotreating process: Canonical analysis and the combined application of factorial design and response surface methodology

This study is aimed at investigating the interactive effects of reaction parameters such as temperature (330-370 C), total pressure (30-50 bar) and liquid hourly space velocity LHSV (1-3 h^-1) on the performance of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) activity. Experiments were performed based on the central composite rotatable design and analyzed using the response surface methodology (RSM). First, the equation model is used to predict HDS activity as a response. Second, the regression analysis of the HDS activity model is obtained from the output of this developed model. Finally, the RSM and canonical analysis is used to optimize this empirical regression model. R ² = 96.5 % showed that the RSM model fitted the observed data well with and is considered to be accurate and available for predicting HDS activity. The obtained equation for the canonical analysis with different signs of eigenvalues revealed that the HDS activity at the stationary point was saddle-shaped. Numerical results also revealed that the maximum predicted HDS activity of 95.92 % was attained at the optimum reaction temperature of 383.63 C, operating pressure of 56.81 bar and LHSV of 2.39 h^-1.