• What is the recommended procedure to wash the catalyst prior to its use?

The amount of oligomeric acidic bodies leaching off the resin catalyst matrix increases with the storage time and temperature. We recommend our clients to wash the catalyst with a minimum of 4 bed volumes of deionized water at 1 bed volume per hour maximum. The temperature could be from 25°C to 80°C, preferably at 50-70°C. The catalyst is considered clean when the last fraction of water at the outlet of the reactor is colorless.

 

 

• What is the typical catalyst lifetime ?

It may range from 9 months to 7 years. This depends on several factors including the feed stream purity, the operating conditions (temperature, feed rate, phenol/acetone ratio) and the resin catalyst morphology.

 

 

• How is the catalyst deactivated ?

The typical mode of deactivation is by polymer fouling. The phenomenon is enhanced when the plant recycles phenolic tars back to the condensation reactor, operate at low space velocity or at high acetone concentration.

 

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