Shutting down an FCCU regen sectionFor those who may not be familiar , this is far from an easy procedure. The regen unit consists of a fluidized bed of very hot catalyst particles . The catalyst must be dumped via a standpipe thru which hot air is blown upwards. A slightly positive upflow of air must be maintained at all times during the dumping procedure. To do otherwise , risks having the regen catalyst slumping inside the reactor with the attendant catastrophic results (need to open up And clean out the reactor or even to replace it)
Yours truly had the rather dubious pleasure of standing at the base of a very hot stand pipe with the task of maintaining a constant air flow by means of a very large standpipe valve. For 36 hours ,I was left to accomplish the task in isolation with my only resource being 24 bottles of coke that had been left for me. The refinery was the Texaco refinery in Montreal and the date was long ago on a very hot July first weekend
My overtime paycheck was fantastic yet I nearly died from dehydration. My boss was an utter idiot as all he could say was that he had forgotten about me. Yet somehow he knew to leave the 24 bottles of coke which clearly were nor enough !!