reforming catalyst contamination by silica

Couple of tips for you:
- monitor and manage the amount of antifoam used in upstream coker unit
- install a silicon guard layer as top bed of your hydrotreater catalyst
- measure silicon level in your feed on a routine basis
- perform routine calculations of silicon loading, and pro-actively changeout your hydrotreater catalyst bed

The key point is to be pro-active with your hydrotreater catalyst changeouts. Reformer catalyst is a lot more expensive than hydrotreating catalyst, so don't run the risk. You do NOT want any breakthrough, so having robust monitoring calculations on silicon loading in your HDT is important.

Also, if you process any synthetic crudes in your refinery, measuring feed quality is important since they may change depending on operations at the crude upgrader.