EP1246888A1 - Procedes et appareil de raffinage par cokefaction continue - Google Patents

Procedes et appareil de raffinage par cokefaction continue

Info

Publication number
EP1246888A1
EP1246888A1 EP00980646A EP00980646A EP1246888A1 EP 1246888 A1 EP1246888 A1 EP 1246888A1 EP 00980646 A EP00980646 A EP 00980646A EP 00980646 A EP00980646 A EP 00980646A EP 1246888 A1 EP1246888 A1 EP 1246888A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
refining
environment
coke
heavy hydrocarbon
api
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP00980646A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1246888A4 (fr
Inventor
Lee E. Brecher
Lyle A. Johnson
Vijay K. Seithi
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
University of Wyoming Research Corp (dba Western Research Institute)
Original Assignee
University of Wyoming Research Corp (dba Western Research Institute)
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by University of Wyoming Research Corp (dba Western Research Institute) filed Critical University of Wyoming Research Corp (dba Western Research Institute)
Publication of EP1246888A1 publication Critical patent/EP1246888A1/fr
Publication of EP1246888A4 publication Critical patent/EP1246888A4/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10B—DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION OF CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION OF GAS, COKE, TAR, OR SIMILAR MATERIALS
    • C10B7/00—Coke ovens with mechanical conveying means for the raw material inside the oven
    • C10B7/10—Coke ovens with mechanical conveying means for the raw material inside the oven with conveyor-screws
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10B—DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION OF CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION OF GAS, COKE, TAR, OR SIMILAR MATERIALS
    • C10B47/00—Destructive distillation of solid carbonaceous materials with indirect heating, e.g. by external combustion
    • C10B47/28—Other processes
    • C10B47/32—Other processes in ovens with mechanical conveying means
    • C10B47/44—Other processes in ovens with mechanical conveying means with conveyor-screws
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10B—DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION OF CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION OF GAS, COKE, TAR, OR SIMILAR MATERIALS
    • C10B55/00—Coking mineral oils, bitumen, tar, and the like or mixtures thereof with solid carbonaceous material
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G9/00—Thermal non-catalytic cracking, in the absence of hydrogen, of hydrocarbon oils
    • C10G9/005—Coking (in order to produce liquid products mainly)

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for refining heavy oils such as in transforming heavy oils into lighter, or higher quality components which are more commercially useful.
  • Coke When hydrocarbons are heated above certain temperatures, they can reach a point at which the carbon atoms bind together and form a substance known as coke. Coke can be problematic because it is a very hard and relatively untransformable substance which usually binds to its container when formed. Great pains are often taken in processing relative to coke. For example, there is a newly invented technique to identify the point at which coke may precipitously form. This technique, described in PCT Application No. PCT/US00/15950, hereby incorporated by reference, shows great promise.
  • Coking processes require careful handling. Here, processes are often accomplished in a batch or semi-batch modality. After coke has formed, the container is set apart to jackhammer or otherwise remove the coke from it. By its very nature, a true continuous process is difficult to achieve. In addition, because of the larger capital expense of such handling, at present only large refineries currently utilize coking as the principal method of upgrading heavy crude oils. Thus, while desirable for efficiency, smaller refineries have not been able to practically utilize coking processes on a commercially viable basis. Since the crude oil supplied to refineries is becoming heavier, this need is becoming more acute.
  • the present invention can be consider as showing that in the refining field those skilled in the art may have simply had too limited a perspective and while there were substantial attempts to achieve the desired goals, those involved failed perhaps because of a failure to appropriately understand the problem of coke formation in the appropriate context. In fact, the efforts may even have taught away from the technical direction in which the present inventors went and so the results might even be considered as unexpected. Thus the present invention may represent not merely an incremental advance over the prior art, it may provide a critically different approach which afford the ability to utilize coking process while also providing a continuous process operation.
  • the present invention provides a continuous refining process which permits the intentional formation of coke from the material to be processed while acting to separate and perhaps create a greater quantity of refined products.
  • the invention utilizes an inclined auger with a medium such as sand in which the raw material is heated past the coking point. The auger then continuously moves the coke out of the bed so that constant and continuous refinement can occur.
  • Figure 1 is a schematic of an inclined auger-type of refining apparatus.
  • Figure 2 is a diagram of an output of an embodiment of the present invention in one application.
  • Figure 3 is a diagram of a hydrotreating result on the pyrolyzer certain overheads.
  • Figure 4 is a schematic of one type of overall system.
  • Figure 5 is a diagram of one type of process material
  • Figure 6 is a chart of throughput for one embodiment of the present invention.
  • Figure 7 is an estimate of the cost of processing drilling muds in one embodiment of the present invention.
  • Figure 1 shows a schematic of an inclined auger-type of refining apparatus according to the present invention. This can be considered one of the many key components to an improved refining system. As an important feature of one embodiment, the system is designed not only to be able to accept heavy hydrocarbon containing material, it can do it on a continuous basis.
  • the refining apparatus may include a pyrolyzer (1) having a process container (5) within which refining can occur.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) may have some type of input (2) through which material to be processed may travel.
  • the input (1) may be a continuous input such that material is provided into the pyrolyzer (1) at the same rate at which it is processed.
  • the processing of the material may, of course, result in refined products which may flow out of an output such as volatiles output (3). It may also result in residuum or unrefined or even perhaps unrefinable material. These may flow out through some type of output such as residuum output (4).
  • an desired aspect of at least one embodiment is the ability to process heavy hydrocarbon material.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) may alter the chemical composition of the material to be processed.
  • Such may, of course include a variety of crudes, but also such materials as stripper bottoms and the like. For more effective processing, this may be accomplished through coking and cracking reactions which rearrange the hydrocarbons and redistribute the hydrogen.
  • this may be accomplished through coking and cracking reactions which rearrange the hydrocarbons and redistribute the hydrogen.
  • approximately 55% of the flash bottoms fed the stripper were recovered as distillate while 45% flowed as underflow to the pyrolyzer (1).
  • the product off the pyrolyzer (1) can even be a light, residuum-free distillate with an API gravity in the 25 to 60 degree range.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) can produce a light hydrocarbon oil which, once stabilized, can contribute significantly to overall product value.
  • Pyrolyzing can include coking and cracking of the heavy oil or material to produce additional light, residuum-free oil, fuel gas to power the process, and a solid similar to petroleum-coke for land-filling.
  • a solid similar to petroleum-coke for land-filling Referring to Figure 2, in this example, it can be understood that by weight it is estimated approximately 44% of the feed to the pyrolyzer (1) can emerge as liquid, about 12% can emerge as fuel gas and about 44% can emerge as coke.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) can also be used to process solids, particularly hydrocarbon-laden solids, of course.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) can coke approximately 75 bpd of heavy oils or even stripper bottoms at temperatures about 1000°F.
  • the pyrolyzer ( 1 ) can also be combined with other process elements such as strippers and flashers or the like. Whereas the pyrolyzer alters the chemical composition, the flash and stripping operations may be thermal separations with a variety of options.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) may achieve the refining of the hydrocarbon material by utilizing a refining environment and even continuously volatilizing substances.
  • the system can then use those substances as or to form refined products.
  • desired non-condensible gases can be recovered and reused as process fuel or can be flared.
  • cracking and coking of the remaining heavier hydrocarbon may occur. In one embodiment, this can occur to or even past the coking point, thus a greater amount of recovery and refining can be achieved.
  • one system combines a coking type of processing with a continuous input and continuously inputting the material to be processed, to permit enhanced outputs.
  • the input (2) to a process container (5) may be adapted to continuously accept material.
  • the system can provide differential processing. This may occur through use of more than one refining environment. By this, it should be understood that different conduction, temperature, locational, flow, or other types of zone can be encompassed.
  • Figure 1 it can be understood how a preferred embodiment can have multiple refining environments in yet one process container (5). In this embodiment, the multiple zones are achieved by inclining process container (5) and providing it in a less than full condition. As shown, there is a first refining environment such as the totally liquid conduction environment (6) and a second refining environment such as the totally gaseous conduction environment (7). These environments may establish different thermal environments between which the temperature, rate of conduction or other thermal differences may exist. This may occur over an effective processing length (8) in one container such as the one process container (5).
  • the refining or material refinement may be initiated in a first refining environment, shown here as liquid conduction environment (6). It may then be pushed, be pulled, or otherwise travel to continue material refinement in a second refining environment, shown here as gaseous conduction environment (7).
  • a second refining environment shown here as gaseous conduction environment (7).
  • the material may be heated by some type of heat source (9). [This may, of course, include a great variety of heat sources and so is shown only schematically.] This raises the temperature of the material, and as that temperature is raised, different volatile substances are driven off. These can be collected through volatiles output (3) as mentioned earlier.
  • liquid conduction environment (6) eventually terminates and next exists gaseous conduction environment (7).
  • gaseous conduction environment (7) By inclining process container (5), this may exist over a distance.
  • a third refining environment can be considered to exist, here, an environment which transitions between purely liquid and gaseous states.
  • the material travels across the pyrolyzer (1), it can be considered as being subjecting to a third refining environment, here , the region in which there is a combination of said first and said second refining environments, namely the partially liquid and partially gaseous environment.
  • the third refining environment can considered be a third thermal environment or a transition refining environment.
  • this transition environment can present a gradual transition environment, or even a linear transition environment whereby the amount of one environment (liquid) linearly decreases while the amount of another environment (gaseous) linearly increases. In this region, there is, of course, a combined liquid and gaseous conduction environment.
  • the allocation of the amount and changes in the various processing environments can be noteworthy as well.
  • at least about the lower one- third of the processing length (8) or about one-third of the process container (1) may contain the or some of the first refining environment or liquid conduction environment (6). This may also be increased or decreased to other lengths.
  • the lower one-third or even lower one-half may be the liquid or un- volatilized material area.
  • the material being processed may be pushed, be pulled, or otherwise travel in the pyrolyzer (1). It may affirmatively be accomplished.
  • This moving of the material may be from a first refining environment to a second refining environment.
  • a screw or auger (10) may be but one way to accomplish this movement, among other purposes.
  • the screw or auger (10) may thus serve as a movement element which operates through the liquid conduction environment (6) and into the gaseous conduction environment (7).
  • the lower one-third to one-half of the inclined screw can be filled with hot liquid which subsequently cokes and is augered up and out of the system.
  • FIG. 4 is a schematic of an overall system according to one embodiment of the invention.
  • volatiles output (3) may feed [with or without a post- refinement treater (11)] into some type of collector, such as a condenser (12).
  • the collector usually would act to output the desired refined products. Often, of course this maybe done separately, however, for simplicity it is shown conceptually only as a single refined product output (13).
  • These various items would accomplish collecting the refined products or perhaps condensing at least some of the results of the refining process.
  • the elements may be adapted to receive at least some of the volatilized substances created by the refining processes and for collecting at least some of the refined products.
  • a sweep gas may be used. This is shown in Figures 1 and 4 where a sweep gas input (14) is depicted. As shown, it may be advantageous to establish the sweep gas input (14) as situated behind the point at which the liquid terminates, an area of a liquid seal as discussed later. Additionally, of course, the sweep gas output, shown as coincident with the volatiles output (3) may be established behind the liquid seal as well to facilitate the withdrawal of the refined volatiles.
  • temperatures may be used to result in the forming of a substantial amount of coke from at least some of such material .
  • These can include temperatures in which the heat source (9) is operated as a coke formation heat source to cause the material to achieve at least about 650°F, 700°F, 750°F, 800°F, 900°F, 950°F, 1000°F, 1100°F, and even 1200°F or more.
  • the material to be processed may be moved from input to output.
  • this element can take on an additional role.
  • the movement element shown in Figure 1 as the screw or auger (10), may thus operates at least between a continuous input and a continuous coke output element. Besides operating to auger the material up the incline of the process container (5), it may serve to force the coke out of the process container (5).
  • the movement element may serve to grind, abrade, auger, shearing, break, or otherwise cause the coke formed to be forced out of the process container (5).
  • the removing of coke may occur while the coke is being formed by the heating of the material. It may present a continuous removal process as desired in some embodiments.
  • the coke, remaining material, or even residuum may then exit the pyrolyzer (1) at a remaining material output such as the residuum output (4).
  • the residuum or remaining material may be especially appropriate for disposal.
  • it may even present a residuum which cokes substantially (ie. greater than 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or even 98%) all of the un-volatilized organic material or residuum.
  • nearly all volatile hydrocarbon may have been removed and only inorganic solids and petroleum coke may remain.
  • a system according to one embodiment of the present invention may continuously remove or create coke having no more than about 6.7% sulfur content or even having no more than about 3.7% sulfur content.
  • the screw or auger (10) may serve as a continuous coke output element and the system may operate to form coke out of substantially all un-volatilized organic material.
  • the system can be designed so that the coke formation heat source operates to form coke out of substantially all residuum, an optimal situation may exist.
  • the screw or auger (10) may serve as a continuous coke output element, it should be appreciated that such an arrangement is but one way to configure the system.
  • many other way are possible including but not limited utilizing a coke grinder, a coke abrader, a coke auger, a coke shear element, a coke break element, or many other types of elements.
  • the output element may be operated while the coke formation heat source acts to form coke and may serve as a continuous coke output element to which the remaining material is responsive.
  • the inclined screw arrangement is merely one representative design.
  • the pyrolyzer (1) can include a fluidized bed of hot sand such as sand bed (15) as a high conduction energy transfer element.
  • the sand bed (15) may have a gas feed (18) to enhance conduction.
  • Into the bed may be immersed the rotary screws.
  • Incoming material to be processed may be fed into these screws and augered into the hot zone of the pyrolyzer.
  • the system may then accomplish outputting of the residuum of material or the coke through residuum output (4). The remaining coke may be disposed of.
  • the heat may be transferred at a rate to properly establish a first thermal environment within which material may be processed.
  • a second thermal environment which differs from the first environment, heat may be transferred differentially. For example, by establishing a liquid conduction environment there may be a greater conduction of heat in that environment than in the gaseous conduction environment.
  • the high conduction energy transfer element which may be effective over an effective process length (as one example, a length in which the refining occurs and is significantly influenced by the heat source) may thus be coordinated with the one or more refinery characteristics (e.g., heat of heat transfer, speed of the screw, amount of heat supplied, etc.) to present an optimal system.
  • the pyrolyzer can use a fluidized bed of hot sand into which rotary screws are immersed., however, this should understood as only one type of highly conducting energy design.
  • the material may be moved on an incline such as that shown to exist within process container (5) as it moves from input (2) to an output.
  • the system may present an inclined refinement process area.
  • an inclined movement element to which the material is responsive such as the inclined screw or auger (10) depicted within the inclined refinement process area.
  • the incline may also serve to create a seal between the volatiles and the input (2).
  • the pyrolyzer (1) may have an input end top (16) and an output end bottom (17) which differ in level height. This may serve to create a totally liquid area and a totally gaseous area to facilitate sealing.
  • the amount of the incline may vary with the amount and type of material being process, the geometry of the system, and other factors. As but one example, an angle of at least about: 15°, 22.5°, 30°, and 45° may serve to achieve the desired sealing and refining operations. Further, all that may be necessary is that the output end bottom (17) be substantially higher than said input end top (16) so that blow back of the volatiles does not occur. Additionally, the incline should not be so steep that the coke or other remaining material cannot pass up the incline through operation of the movement element such as screw or auger (10).
  • the movement element may serve as an incline overpower movement element so that the refining of the material occurs on the incline creating refined products perhaps throughout that element and moves in a manner which overcomes the effects of the incline.
  • the output end bottom (17) may even be substantially above said liquid level so that once can be certain only coke, and not unprocessed material is removed.
  • the unit's throughput can also be determined by either the reaction kinetics or the rate of heat transfer. Since the lower portion of the screw can be liquid-filled, heat transfer in this region can be rapid on the process side and can be controlled by the convective heat transfer on the gas side of the screw. The use of a fluidized bed on the gas side can also lead to very rapid heat transfer to the screw, thus, in service the pyrolyzer throughput can be controlled by the kinetics of the coking reactions.
  • the length, speed, and other process parameters can thus be set based upon a variety of factors, including but not limited to the amount of thermal transfer in apparatus, the speed at which said apparatus is operated, the amount of heat supplied in the apparatus, the amount of thermal transfer in the gaseous conduction environment, the amount of thermal transfer in the high conduction energy transfer element, the kinetics of coking reactions occurring within the refinery apparatus, etc.
  • the input end top (16) of pyrolyzer (1) is higher than the output end bottom (17).
  • the level line (19) represents the level the liquid would tend to achieve under static conditions.
  • some liquid may, of course achieve a higher level toward the output end bottom (17).
  • one goal may be to avoid having any fluid reach the residuum output (4) so that only coke or other remainder is output from the system. This can be achieved by the incline creating a totally gaseous area on the output end.
  • the incline can serve to create a totally liquid area on the input end to facilitate sealing the volatiles present at volatiles output (3) from pushing back and exiting out input (2).
  • the incline is one way to establish a liquid seal between the input (2) and the output.
  • the present invention utilizes at least some of the material to be processed as a more efficient system.
  • a variety of levels of seal are possible, of course including but not limited to: at least about a 1 psi seal, at least about a 2 psi seal, a seal having at least 2 feet of liquid head or depth, a seal having at least 1 foot of liquid head, a seal located about mid way between the input and output, and a seal adequate to avoid blow back of the results from continuously volatilizing substances.
  • the seal may be established at an interface between the material and the volatilized substances.
  • the incline serves to establish a seal-creation inclined refinement process area. It is also made up of and utilizes the input or hydrocarbon material.
  • the material being refined by pyrolyzer (1) may be treated before it goes into the pyrolyzer (1) and after it comes out from the pyrolyzer (1).
  • Such steps and elements are shown schematically in Figure 4.
  • the step of pre-treating the material of course occurs before accomplishing the continuous volatilization of substances and may be accomplished by one or more types of a pretreater (20).
  • this refinery apparatus is responsive to the various pretreatment elements whether they be a thermal treater, a flasher, a stripper, or the like. As shown in Figure 4, both a flasher (21) and a stripper (22) are shown as utilized in this one embodiment.
  • the flow of material is from unprocessed material source (23) to refined product output (13).
  • a flasher (21) and a stripper (22) are utilized.
  • the stripper (22) may be an atmospheric distillation unit with the solids agitated by a stripper sweep gas provided through a stripper sweep gas feed (24) to bubble through the still. In addition to providing agitation, this gas may also lower the partial pressures of the distilling hydrocarbons thus achieving some of the advantages of a vacuum still.
  • the nature of the oil or other hydrocarbons fed to the stripper (22) can have a significant influence on the amount of product taken off the stripper (22) in stripper output (25) as well as the pyrolyzer (1) and the quality of that product. Varying the operating temperature of stripper (22) may produce greater or lesser amounts of distillate in the overhead with the balance reporting with the residuum to the stripper bottoms. These stripper bottoms may be fed to the pyrolyzer (1).
  • the Cold Lake crude as an example, it is estimated that approximately 55%> of the crude will be recovered as distillate from the stripper as a 20.2 deg API oil having a sulfur content of 2.9 weight percent.
  • the refined product off the pyrolyzer (1) can be a light, residuum-free distillate with an API gravity in the 25 to 60 degree range.
  • the entire stripper operation can of course be varied. This may include a variety of steps including but not limited to: atmospherically distilling, bubbling a sweep gas through material, both atmospherically distilling and bubbling a sweep gas through the material ⁇ creating at least about some 20° API material, creating at least about some 60° API material, and the permutations and combinations of each of these.
  • the stripper (22) may include an atmospheric distiller, a sweep gas feed (24) , and both of these.
  • the pretreater (20) may also include elements to flash the material.
  • This is shown genetically as flasher (21).
  • feed to one type of process material can consist of a mixture of oil, water and suspended solids.
  • the mixture may be first heated under pressure to temperatures near 400 °F, and then expanded through a flash valve to atmospheric pressure.
  • This is a type of flashing with a sudden let-down in pressure to release the emulsified water as steam. This may be vented harmlessly to the stack (26).
  • the warm flash bottoms can then be sent to the stripper (22) where the first product oil or other refined product can be recovered.
  • the act of flashing the material can, of course be accomplished before accomplishing the step of continuously volatilizing substances.
  • the unit depicted generically as flasher (21) will then outputs at least some heavy hydrocarbon material for the refinery apparatus.
  • elements used may include a heat source which operates to achieve a material temperature of at least about 400°F, a pressure reducer, and generically an atmospheric flasher.
  • Treating the refined products of pyrolyzer (1) may also be included. As shown this may be accomplished generically by a post-refinement treater (11). As its name implies, it may be configured to permit post-treating after the refined products of pyrolyzer (1) are created and may be located either before or after condenser (12). At least some of the volatilized substances may be fed into it and so the post-refinement treater (11) may be responsive to the refinery apparatus.
  • One type of post-refinement treating may be hydrotreating such as where post-refinement treater (11) includes or serves as a hydrotreater.
  • the chart in Figure 3 is a summary of some hydrotreating results obtained on pyrolyzer overheads in the example.
  • the sample labeled "Untreated 2" and the one labeled "Stripper Oil” were the samples discussed earlier. The remaining samples were generated during a test from an original material which is labeled "Untreated 1".
  • the bromine number and diene value by maleic anhydride are empirical indications of the presence of olefins (bromine number) and conjugated dienes (dienes by maleic anhydride).
  • the maleic anhydride value does not directly reflect the concentrations of dienes in the sample because the mass of each individual sample and the molality of the titrant is required for this calculation.
  • the diene value is an indication of conjugated double bonds and subject to interference from species such as anthracene and other polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons which are abundant in these oils. As a result, the absolute significance of these values should be interpreted with caution.
  • the hydrotreating accomplished in this example is a hydrotreating of the refined products at least about 1800 psi through a pressure element (depicted as part of the pretreater) capable of achieving that pressure. From the result shown in Figure 3, it is shown that hydrotreating at 1800 psi can lead to low hydrogen consumption, significantly reduced or eliminated olefin concentrations, an acceptable H/C ratio, and operating conditions conducive to maximum catalyst life. If some residual olefins do remain, these may not be highly reactive and it will likely not be necessary to saturate them in order to prevent gum formation. In addition, the extreme ease of cracking and subsequent resaturation suggests an alternate configuration where all material is first sent to the pyrolyzer and then hydrotreated so as to produce maximum quantities of light product oil for condensate replacement, blending and sale.
  • the pyrolyzer can produce a light hydrocarbon oil which, once stabilized, can contribute significantly to overall product value.
  • the hydrogen required to achieve this stabilization and to hydrotreat additional stripper overhead can also be derived from the coking of a portion of the stripper bottoms. In so doing, petroleum coke suitable for fueling the pyrolyzer may be produced.
  • the remaining products, Ci to C 4 hydrocarbons, may be sold as product. Overall, all of the incoming material can be converted to high value products or consumed as fuel.
  • the process in the example can be configured to be capable of recovering approximately 80-85% of the original hydrocarbon as product oil with the remaining material split between process fuel gas and coke.
  • processing the Cold Lake crude with the present invention process can produce 16,404 bpd of 26.5 deg API product oil containing 3.61% sulfur, 712 tons per day of coke containing 6.7% sulfur, and 6.18 MM scf/day of fuel gas with a HHV of 1328 Btu/scf.
  • these processing steps have applications similar to those in a modern refinery.
  • the technology, with appropriate variations and upgrades, is ideally suited for deployment in the oil fields as a mobile, modular, shop-fabricated refinement.
  • the system may be designed to return some or even all the energy needed to run the process. It may be self sustaining by utilizing energy generated from the refined products in the method of refining. This may be accomplished by combusting non-condensible refined products generated in the method, among other returns. Thus the system may utilize substantially no input power to power the steps of the method of refining.
  • the energy reuse element (27) is conceptually shown as utilizing some output from stripper output (25) to return energy to the refinery apparatus (depicted as returning as heat input to pyrolyzer (1). It may also be wise to use some non-condensible refined products combustion element (depicted as part of the energy reuse element) to facilitate the energy return.
  • Cold Lake bitumen An example of a 20,000 b/d plant processing the Cold Lake bitumen, an 11 API crude containing 4.6% sulfur is used to illustrate the principles involved in one approach. Upgrading this crude may produce 16,404 bpd of a 26.5
  • API product containing 3.1% sulfur by weight The plant additionally may produce
  • the facility may require no import power or fuel and would likely have an operating cost (exclusive of capital related charges) of less than Cdn$0.65/bbl.
  • gas and electric charges may be approximately
  • heat transfer can be arranged to be rapid from the fluidized bed to the shell of the screw and vaporization can be nearly instantaneous once evaporation temperatures are reached.
  • the material in the screw can be either a mud or a damp solid with a resultant process side heat transfer coefficient which might be considerably lower than that of the earlier case.
  • the overall throughput may be controlled by the rate of heat transfer from the shell of the inclined screw to the interior mass of damp solid on the process side.
  • Such individual heat transfer coefficients and their effects on any such process or the overall heat transfer may need to be measured experimentally.
  • the present invention may apply to, but not be limited to, heavy oils from crude oil and any other mixtures of hydrocarbon products, water and sediments. Although perhaps of less commercial significance it may be used to transform waste materials such as tank bottom wastes and drilling muds. Such a use of some components of the present invention can be for waste material recovery as discussed in a US Pat. No. 5,259,945, hereby incorporated by reference.
  • This process referred to as "TaBoRR" processing (a trademark of the assignee), is a process of recovering distilled and upgraded oil from mixtures of oil, water and sediments.
  • the economics of processing such drilling muds or the like in a pyrolyzer of the present invention is preliminarily estimated in the chart in Figure 3. Specific capital investment may depend upon the heat transfer coefficients determined during the experimental program, but are expected to vary between 0.1 to 1 $MM/ton/hour.
  • the basic concepts of the present invention may be embodied in a variety of ways. It involves both refining techniques as well as devices to accomplish the appropriate refining.
  • the refining techniques are disclosed as part of the results shown to be achieved by the various devices described and as steps which are inherent to utilization.
  • the refining techniques may be used in, but not limited to, heavy oil upgrading, tar sand processing, production pits, crude oil refining, and other small or large refineries. They are simply the natural result of utilizing the devices as intended and described.
  • some devices are disclosed, it should be understood that these not only accomplish certain methods but also can be varied in a number of ways. Importantly, as to all of the foregoing, all of these facets should be understood to be encompassed by this disclosure.
  • each of the various elements of the invention and claims may also be achieved in a variety of manners.
  • This disclosure should be understood to encompass each such variation, be it a variation of an embodiment of any apparatus embodiment, a method or process embodiment, or even merely a variation of any element of these.
  • the words for each element may be expressed by equivalent apparatus terms or method terms ⁇ even if only the function or result is the same.
  • Such equivalent, broader, or even more generic terms should be considered to be encompassed in the description of each element or action. Such terms can be substituted where desired to make explicit the implicitly broad coverage to which this invention is entitled.

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  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
  • Organic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Materials Engineering (AREA)
  • Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
  • General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Thermal Sciences (AREA)
  • Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
  • Production Of Liquid Hydrocarbon Mixture For Refining Petroleum (AREA)
  • Coke Industry (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système de raffinage de matières contenant des hydrocarbures selon un mode de cokéfaction continue, comprenant un pyrolyseur (1) pouvant être incliné pour constituer un joint liquide entre un environnement (6) de conduction liquide et un environnement (7) de conduction gazeux. Une source de chaleur (9) peut chauffer la matière au-delà du point de cokéfaction et le système peut comprendre une vis ou tarière (10) pouvant éliminer le coke de façon continue tout en produisant simultanément des produits raffinés.
EP00980646A 1999-11-24 2000-11-21 Procedes et appareil de raffinage par cokefaction continue Withdrawn EP1246888A4 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (5)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US16733799P 1999-11-24 1999-11-24
US16733599P 1999-11-24 1999-11-24
US167337P 1999-11-24
US167335P 1999-11-24
PCT/US2000/032029 WO2001038458A1 (fr) 1999-11-24 2000-11-21 Procedes et appareil de raffinage par cokefaction continue

Publications (2)

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EP1246888A1 true EP1246888A1 (fr) 2002-10-09
EP1246888A4 EP1246888A4 (fr) 2004-06-09

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EP (1) EP1246888A4 (fr)
AU (1) AU1787701A (fr)
BR (1) BR0015733A (fr)
CA (1) CA2393120C (fr)
MX (1) MXPA02005183A (fr)
WO (1) WO2001038458A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6972085B1 (en) 1999-11-24 2005-12-06 The University Of Wyoming Research Corporation Continuous coking refinery methods and apparatus
US7976695B2 (en) 2004-12-06 2011-07-12 University Of Wyoming Research Corporation Hydrocarbonaceous material processing methods and apparatus
US9045699B2 (en) 2004-12-06 2015-06-02 The University Of Wyoming Research Corporation Hydrocarbonaceous material upgrading method

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1817926A (en) * 1928-02-03 1931-08-11 Consolidation Coal Products Co Distillation of pitch into coke
US2657120A (en) * 1949-08-15 1953-10-27 Warner Company Chemical reactor
US5259945A (en) * 1992-04-15 1993-11-09 Johnson Jr Lyle A Process for recovery of tank bottom wastes
US5318697A (en) * 1990-02-20 1994-06-07 The Standard Oil Company Process for upgrading hydrocarbonaceous materials
US5836524A (en) * 1996-10-01 1998-11-17 National Science Council Liquefaction of wastes with product oil recycling

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE2747495C2 (de) * 1977-10-22 1979-10-04 Bergwerksverband Gmbh, 4300 Essen Verfahren zum kontinuierlichen Herstellen eines Kokses
US4200517A (en) * 1977-12-05 1980-04-29 Arthur G. Mckee & Company Treatment of hydrocarbon-containing mineral material
US4822479A (en) * 1986-11-21 1989-04-18 Conoco Inc. Method for improving the properties of premium coke
US5645712A (en) * 1996-03-20 1997-07-08 Conoco Inc. Method for increasing yield of liquid products in a delayed coking process

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1817926A (en) * 1928-02-03 1931-08-11 Consolidation Coal Products Co Distillation of pitch into coke
US2657120A (en) * 1949-08-15 1953-10-27 Warner Company Chemical reactor
US5318697A (en) * 1990-02-20 1994-06-07 The Standard Oil Company Process for upgrading hydrocarbonaceous materials
US5259945A (en) * 1992-04-15 1993-11-09 Johnson Jr Lyle A Process for recovery of tank bottom wastes
US5836524A (en) * 1996-10-01 1998-11-17 National Science Council Liquefaction of wastes with product oil recycling

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See also references of WO0138458A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
MXPA02005183A (es) 2002-11-07
CA2393120C (fr) 2013-03-19
EP1246888A4 (fr) 2004-06-09
BR0015733A (pt) 2002-09-17
AU1787701A (en) 2001-06-04
WO2001038458A1 (fr) 2001-05-31
CA2393120A1 (fr) 2001-05-31

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