ATF Production from Kerosene Issue

You could have caustic buildup in your merox unit....you might need an additional KHDS unit to produce a dryer and cleaner solution...

http://www.eptq.com/qandaquestion.aspx?q=8d3b5045-57f5-40c6-9508-2206d5c9706f

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-diagram-of-an-atmospheric-distillation-unit_fig1_282449890

Will it be something related to smoke point ??

Thanks for the answer.

It could be ....the process must be tuned to the quality of the feed stock and the process must be monitored closely to maintain the pressures, temperatures and saturation point necessary...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265335154_Property_prediction_of_petroleum_fractions_smoke_point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merox

I am a little confused.

Although like Solar Eagle I would take a hard look at the Merox (and SE has covered the issues) you specified in the query the problem was with the ADU.

You haven't specified what the severe quality control issues are that are experienced with the ATF so we are guessing. Typically the differences for ATF are tighter specs on cloud, smoke etc.

These are all impacted by the boiling range of the cut.

My guess is that if you let the kero cut too deep into the diesel fraction you will get a heavier cut - so likely more wax (higher cloud point) heavier MW - more smoke etc

So its likely the control of the temps of bottom of Kero / top of diesel and the take off flows.

Note that all the parameters of the column (inlet flash temp, pressure, off gas, naphtha cuts etc) have impacts on the column performance and will change the nature of a specific cut.

Say you increased the Naphtha take offs this would reduce the reflux and so widen the BP spread of the other cuts and likely give a worse performance.