Document 99986y0Yvp8Y6X7OrKyppEQDq

\ fV' INTEROFFICE COMMUNICATION Westlake, Louisiana August 19, 1969 TO: subject: Mr. R. H. Gerlach - Westlake Oxy Catalyst Loading Data ^ All three reactors were given to Maintenance at 7:30 a.m., Monday, August 11th. Water blasting and drilling cleaned the reactors by 10:00 p.m., Wednes day. While the reactors were steam dried the catalyst support plates were installed on R--301 and R-302. The loading of R--301 started at 1:00 a.m., Thursday and was completed at 5:00 p.m., Sunday for an elapsed time of 89 hours. The loading of R-302 started at 1:00 a.m., Thursday and was completed at 10;00 a.m., Sunday. About 8 hours w re lost on Thursday because the catalyst support plate fell down in the center. None of the Raschig rings fell out but no loading was done until the plate could be secured again. Loading time was 74 hours. The loading of R-303 was delayed until 12:00 noon, Thurs day because the support plate could not be put in place until then. Loading was completed at 8;00 p.m., Saturday for an elapsed time of 56 hours. Loading Details A. R--301 1. 1/2" Raschig rings--7" deep, 20 hours. 2. 100% catalyst--26" deep, 20 hours. 3. 65% catalyst--26" deep, 16 hours. 4. 45% catalyst--26" deep, 16 hours. 5. 32% catalyst--40" deep, 16 hours. 6. Thermowell tubes--1 hour. i CCR 000034224 Mr. R. H. Gerlach Page 2 B. R-302 1. 1/2" Raschig rings--7" deep, 20 hours loading time. 2. 100% catalyst--52" deep, 16 hours. 3. 65% catalyst--26" deep, 16 hours. 4. 45% catalyst--40" deep, 20 hours. 5. Thermowell tubes--2 hours. C. R~303 1. 1/2" Raschig rings--7" deep, 24 hours. 2. 100% catalyst--118" deep, 30 hours. 3. Thermowell tubes--2 hours. Special Comments At the start of the loading it was believed that catalyst loading would not be the bottleneck of this shutdown. For that reason, no special effort was made to keep a full loading team on each reactor. Manpower varied from a minimum of 11 men to 28 men. It is impossible to determine the exact number of men assigned to each reactor. As the loading of R-303 finished more men were assigned to R--301 and R-302 and when R-302 finished more men were assigned to R--301. The six tubes around the southeast thermowell on R--301 were loaded with a new catalyst from Catalysts and Chemicals, Inc. The tubes N, ENE, and ESE of the well were loaded with 12 percent copper catalyst and the tubes S, WSW,and WNW of ther thermowell were loaded with 10 percent copper catalyst. The regular catalyst is 8.5 percent copper from the Harshaw Chemical Company. The catalyst used in R-301 was lots 20, 39, and 50. R-302 was charged with lots 39 and 50 and R-303 was charged with lots 33, 39, 40, 42 and 43. OCR 000034225 Mr. R. H. Gerlach Page 3 During the loading of these reactors "suckouts" and overfilled tubes were negligible. For this reason the writer feels that 25 to 50 percent of the load ing time can be saved by cutting the number of level checks from each tube to each 10 or 20 tubes. RWC-MC / cc: LNV, DKP, RLH, JDM R. W. Churns Process Engineer CCR 000034226 <