KR101930580B1 - Low complexity, high yield conversion of heavy hydrocarbons - Google Patents

Abstract

Firstly performing moderate pyrolysis on the heavy hydrocarbons and subsequently separating the asphaltene-rich fractions from the resulting thermally-influenced fluid so that the high solvent-to-oil ratio of the process results in an asphaltene-rich fraction By using a high performance solvent extraction process for high local solvent-to-process fluid ratios by allowing only the fraction to react and to produce dry solid asphaltenes as the end-product, the low overall solvent- A process is described for producing a feedstock for pipeline or refinery from heavy hydrocarbons, with the process fluid ratio remaining.

Description

Low complexity, high yield conversion of heavy hydrocarbons {LOW COMPLEXITY, HIGH YIELD CONVERSION OF HEAVY HYDROCARBONS}

The present invention relates to the use of heavy hydrocarbons such as bitumen and the like as a hard, more fluid product, in particular as refinery-ready and as a final hydrocarbon product satisfying pipeline transport criteria without the addition of diluent To an optimized method. Solid asphaltene byproducts are produced which are easily handled and processed further. The present invention aims at improving Canadian bitumen, but has a general application to improve any heavy hydrocarbons.

A low complexity, high yield, intensive process has been developed, tested and improved to improve the feasibility and economics of the conversion of heavy viscous hydrocarbons to certain refinery feedstocks. The concept of this intensive process has already been described in US patent application Ser. Nos. 13/037185 and 13/250935 and is described in the context of a pilot plant (5 barrels per day (5BPD)) and demonstration scale facilities (1500 barrels per day). Improvements to the intensive process through shear mixing have been described in U.S. Patent Application No. 61/548915.

The present invention describes optimal working conditions for achieving the lowest complexity and highest yield for the above described intensive process. The intensive process may be carried out at any temperature, pressure, heat fluxes, residence times, sweep gas rates and solvent to oil ratios outside any disclosed technology process It is operated. Reduced capital and operating costs, along with high liquid product yields for the new intensive process from all of these conditions and the combination of solvent choices, enable a high revenue opportunity for any heavy oil producer.

Description of Prior Art

Oil Sands Bituminous Pipelines have been described as transportable and / or convertible to crude oil acceptable to refineries. In particular, thermal cracking, catalytic cracking, solvent deasphalting, and combinations of these three (e.g., visbreaking and solvent deasphalting) This bitumen has been proposed to convert its properties for use as transfer and refinery feedstocks.

pyrolysis

Visbreaking or viscosity breaking, a form of pyrolysis, is a well-known petroleum refining process in which reduced and / or attenuated crude crudes are pyrolyzed under relatively mild conditions or cracked Less viscous and costly increased requirements to achieve blending hydrocarbons, known as diluents, to improve the flowability of the crude oil, as well as lower viscosity and pour points, ), And ensures that the crude meets minimum transport pipeline specifications (API gravity of at least 9).

There are two basic visbreaking configurations: a coil-only visbreaker and a coil-and-soak visbreaker. Both require a heater to heat the crude oil, and a coil-only style employs cracking only in the heater tube. The coil-only rib breaker operates at about 900 ° F with a residence time of about 1 minute at the heater outlet. Gas oil is recycled to quench the reaction. In the coil-and-soak visbreaker, a vessel at the outlet of the furnace is used to provide a separate residence time for cracking of the crude oil. The crude oil sits and continues cracking / reaction as the temperature is slowly reduced. The coil-and-soak visbreaker operates at a heater outlet temperature of 800 ° F. The soaker drum temperature is reduced from the outlet to 700 < 0 > F over the combined residence time of one hour or more.

Examples of such visbreaking methods are described in Beuther et al., "Thermal Visbreaking of Heavy Residues ", The Oil and Gas Journal. 57: 46, Nov 9, 1959, pp. 151-157; Rhoe et al., "Visbreaking: A Flexible Process ", Hydrocarbon Processing, January 1979, pp. 131-136; And U.S. Patent No. 4,233,138. The yield structure is 1 to 3% gas ends, 5% (wt%) naphtha and 15% (vt) gas oil ). The remainder is left with heavy oil or bitumen. The products are separated in a distillation column for further processing or mixing.

Concern over standard visbreaking schemes is that for Canadian bitumen, the operating temperature is above the limit (about 700 ° F to 720 ° F) where the obvious coking affects operability (See Golden and Bartletta, Designing Vacuum Units for Canadian heavy crudes, Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q2, 2006, pp. 105). In addition, heat may be supplied in the heater over a short period of time such that the localized heat flow is not uniform and may reach a peak above coking initiation limits; And allowing the condensation reactions to take place because the heat is not kept constant. Applying normal visbreaking to Canadian bitumen is limited by the trend towards coking and the inability of these systems to manage these problems.

In the first part of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,972,085 and 7,976,695, attempts have been made to approach the desire for constant and continuous application of heat to crude oil over an extended period of time. Essentially, the heaters and holding vessels were combined into a single vessel to produce a continuous heated bath to the crude oil. Multiple heating levels were applied to the crude oil at various times. This is an improvement to standard visbreaking but fails to remove hot spots within the processed crude oil and allows coking due to temperature climings above optimal levels for cracking.

Thermal / catalytic cracking and solvent Deasphalted  Combination( Combination of  Thermal / Catalytic Cracking and Solvent Deasphalting )

In U.S. Patent No. 4,454,023, a process for the treatment of heavy viscous hydrocarbon oils is disclosed, which comprises visbreaking the oil; Fractionating said visbroken oil; Solvent deasphalting the non-distilled portion of the visbreaked oil in a two-stage deasphalting process to produce separated asphaltenes, resins and deasphalted oil fractions; Mixing said deasphalted oil fraction ("DAO") with said visbreaked distillates; And recycling and combining the resin from the de-asphalt stage with the feedstock initially delivered to the visbreaker. The U.S. Patent No. 4,454,023 provides a means for upgrading the hard hydrocarbons (API specific gravity> 15) to that of the Canadian bitumen, but due to the misuse of pyrolysis which can over-crack and coke the hydrocarbon stream And the additional complexity and cost of additional solvent extraction steps to separate the resin fraction from the de-asphaltized oil fraction. In addition, the need for a recycle portion of the resin stream increases the cost of the operation and the complexity of the operation.

In U.S. Patent 4,191,636, heavy oil is continuously added to asphaltene and non-metal oil (metal) by continuously hydrotreating the heavy oil to selectively crack the asphaltenes and simultaneously removing heavy metals such as nickel and vanadium. -free oil. The liquid products are separated into a light fraction of the as-asphaltene and non-metal oil and a heavy fraction of asphaltene-containing and heavy metal-containing oil. The hard fraction is recovered into the product and the heavy fraction is recycled to the hydrotreating step. The catalytic conversion of Canadian heavy bitumen (API specific gravity <10) using the patented process 4,191,636 is believed to be a reliable catalyst for catalytic deactivation that affects selectivity and yield It is a high-intensity process that tends to have problems.

In U.S. Patent No. 4,428,824, a solvent deasphalting unit is installed upstream of the visbreaking unit to remove asphaltenes from the visbreaking operation. In this structure, since the asphaltene is completely removed from the product stream, the visbreaking unit is operated at a higher temperature to convert the heavier molecules to harder hydrocarbon molecules without fouling . However, since the initial removal of asphaltenes in the process is prevented from thermal conversion of this portion from crude oil to a refinable product, the yield of bitumen is greatly reduced (by 10 to 5%).

As in U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,824, U.S. Patent No. 6,274,032 discloses a fractionator for separating primary crude components and subsequently solvent deasphalting (SDA) that acts on heavier crude oil asphaltene-rich components, Unit and a mild thermal cracker for a non-asphaltene stream. &Lt; Desc / Clms Page number 2 &gt; The asphaltene-rich stream is processed in a gasification unit to produce syngas for hydrogen requirements. Since removing the asphaltene fraction of crude oil containing less than 15% of the bitumen of Canada to account for some form of crude oil, the placing of the solvent deasphalting unit in the upward stream of the pyrolyzer is limited to the refinery Thereby reducing the overall yield of bitumen as the feedstock. This loss in product yield is not counteracted by the increased cracking in the visbreaker.

In U.S. Patent No. 4,686,028, a process for the treatment of whole crude oil is described, which comprises deasphalting a high boiling range hydrocarbon in a two-stage deasphalting process to separate separated asphaltenes, resins and deasphalted Producing oil fractions and subsequently upgrading only the resin fraction by hydrogenation or non-braking. The U.S. Patent No. 4,686,028 applies visbreaking to the favourable portion of the total crude oil stream to minimize coke production. However, the 4,686,028 patent is limited to the loss of most of the crude oil which may be beneficial from the optimal conversion, so that most of the crude oil does not become a pipeline product that does not require a transport diluent.

In U.S. Patent No. 5,601,697 a process for the treatment of topped crude oil is described which comprises vacuum distilling the topped crude oil and separating the bottoms product from the distillation, Deasphalting the deasphalted oil and mixing distillable catalytic cracking fractions (atmospheric equivalent boiling temperatures below 1100 ° F) to produce transportation fuels, light gases ) And slurry oil. &Lt; Desc / Clms Page number 2 &gt; U.S. Patent No. 5,601,697 is burdened with the complexity, cost and technical feasibility of catalytic cracking of deasphalted oils to produce vacuum distillation and transport fuels of topped heavy crude oil to about 850 ° F.

U.S. Patent No. 6,533,925 discloses an improvement for separating a resin phase from a gasification process of a solvent desalting process and a solvent solution comprising a solvent, deasphalted oil (DAO) and a resin. A process involving the integration of the resulting process has been described. The U.S. Patent No. 6,533,925 includes a resin extractor for a solvent raised to a temperature above the temperature of the first asphaltene extractor. The asphaltene stream is treated but is removed prior to any thermal conversion to eliminate the possibility of obtaining a value enhancement to a useful refinery feedstock. This effect is a reduction in the potential overall yield of the crude oil stream.

U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0125686 describes a process wherein the heavy hydrocarbon stream is first separated into several fractions through distillation of heavy components sent to a moderate pyrolyzer (visbreaker). The residual heavy liquid from the moderate pyrolyzer is solvent deasphalted in a solvent prior art solvent deasphalting unit. Asphaltenes isolated from the solvent deasphalting are used as feed to the gasifier. The deasphalted oil is mixed with the condensed, moderate pyrolyzer vapor to form a blended product. As mentioned for the 4,454,023 patent, visbreaking is faced with the challenge of producing initial coke. In particular, the 2007/0125686 patent application is intended to crack the non-asphaltene material entirely with the intention of this moderate pyrolyzer, which is also not feasible for Canadian bitumen. In this application, the moderate pyrolyzer is operated at elevated pressure to inevitably increase coke formation and hence yield. In addition, separate energy is required in the distillation and extraction steps for most of the separate components combined for pipeline transportation.

In U.S. Patent No. 8,048,291, a process in which residues from an atmospheric column and / or a vacuum column are treated in a solvent deasphalting unit and subsequently treated with some form of pyrolysis or catalytic cracking, do. The purpose of this patent is to reduce the cost of cracking the deasphalted oil stream by depositing the solvent deasphalting over the upflow of the cracker. The multiple extraction steps and operating conditions of the solvent deasphalting are performed in a coherent process that provides a lower total yield as there is no significant cost to add hydrogen to increase the cost of the entire process, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; cracking units &lt; / RTI &gt; The solvent deasphalting unit removes heavy asphaltenes containing 15% or more heavy-duty bituminous streams, thus limiting the overall yield to 85% or less unless expensive contacting processes are employed. The overall result of this process is uneconomical with the restriction that the feed to be processed is above 5 APIs where the feed through which the solvent deasphalting is processed is above the API.

menstruum Deasphalting  produce Aspalten -abundance Of the stream  process( Treatment of SDA  generated Asphaltene - Rich Stream )

In US Pat. No. 4,421,639, the solvent deasphalting process concentrates the asphaltene material (and recovers deasphalted oil) using a second asphalt extractor. The concentrated asphalt stream is delivered through a heater that raises the temperature of the stream from 18 psia to 425, and is subsequently sent to a flash drum and a steam stripper A solvent (propane in this case) is separated from the asphalt stream. Liquid asphalt products are pumped and stored. This arrangement only works if the asphalt rich stream is liquid at these conditions. The presence of significant solid asphaltene, such as bitumen, in the asphaltene-rich stream is imposed by plugging.

In US Pat. No. 3,847,751, a concentrated asphaltene product from a solvent deasphalting unit is mixed with a solvent and transferred as a liquid solution to a spray dryer. The spray nozzle design and pressure drop determine the size of the liquid droplets formed. The smaller the light hydrocarbon (solvent) droplet, the more completely the vapor will be vaporized. The smaller the heavy hydrocarbon (asphaltene) particles, the greater the surface area available for heat transfer to cool the heavy particles to achieve the goal of producing dry, non-sticky solid particles. Just as a separate cold gas is supplied to the bottom of the spray dryer to slow the droplet descent rate (through the upward cooling gas flow) to increase the droplet residence time Separate convective heat transfer improves cooling to reduce the size of the vessel (which tends to be extremely large). This arrangement is not necessary if the asphaltene particles that sink in the extractor are present in solid form in the solvent at the process operating temperature.

U.S. Patent No. 4,278,529 describes a process for separating solvents from bitumen materials by reduced pressure without carry-over of bituminous material. By passing through a pressure reduction valve, the fluid-like phase feedstock comprising the bituminous material and the solvent is depressurized and subsequently introduced into the steam stripper. The depressurization vaporizes a portion of the solvent and also disperses liquid mist of fine bitart material particles in the solvent. The problem with this approach is that the residual asphaltene remains wet and tacky and there is not enough solvent left to maintain the heavy bituminous phase (with many solids) will be.

US Patent 4,572,781 uses a centrifugal decanter to separate a liquid phase from a highly concentrated slurry of solid asphaltenes to separate substantially dry asphaltene at a high softening point (temperature) from the heavy hydrocarbon material A solvent deasphalting process is described. This process is attempting to handle an asphaltene-rich stream with solids, but the separation of solids requires solid / liquid separation where a separate solvent is required to allow the material to flow to the slope separation process, which is a highly costly process. Invariably, the separated solid material is still relatively wet and an additional drying step is required to recover the solvent as a vapor. Solvent vapors need to be compressed for reuse, which is another high energy step.

In US Pat. No. 5,009,772 there is shown a method involving a continuous, relatively low temperature de-asphaltization process wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock material and the extraction solvent are introduced into the extraction zone In contact with higher subcritical temperatures and superatmospheric pressures in the light extract phase and with higher molecular weight hydrocarbon components, Conradson carbon precursors and heavy metals Producing a heavy phase. The patent 5,009,772 implies that there are advantages of working below supercritical conditions in the solvent deasphalting unit, including a reduced pressure that is continuously exerted at pressures above the first hard extraction phase produced in the extraction zone . However, additional refinement points may be used in the entire process to allow the heavier crude to be processed in a simpler and less costly manner.

In U.S. Patent No. 7,597,794, a dispersion solvent is introduced into an asphalt phase after separation by solvent extraction and the asphalt phase undergoes a rapid phase change in a gas-solid separator And while the solid particles are being dispersed, the solvent vaporizes and results in a cryogenic separation of the asphalt and the solvent accompanied by the adjustable size of the asphalt particles. Attempts to vapor / spray dryers using liquid solvents as transport media tend to leave the asphaltenes produced in this process wet before, during, and after the vaporization drying step. In addition, with this process, the asphaltenes continue to liquefy at elevated temperatures. The wetted asphaltenes are tacky to all surfaces and easily contaminate and seal process equipment. The reliability resulting from using this approach makes this operation expensive for heavy crude with high asphaltene content. Example 6 of the patent results in a total DAO yield of 83.5% and a solvent recovery of 80% or more using heavy crude oil having an API of 2. Both of these values represent an uneconomical process and can be greatly improved.

In US 7,749,378, dilute heavy oil or bitumen with a diluent comprising a hydrocarbon having from 3 to 8 carbon atoms at the production site to form a mixture; Transferring the mixture from the production site to a solvent deasphalting unit; Deasphalting said mixture in said de-asphaltening unit to recover asphaltene fraction, essentially asphaltene-free deasphalted oil fraction and solvent fraction; Separating water and salts from the asphaltene fraction, the deasphalted oil fraction and the solvent fraction in the solvent deasphalting unit; And transferring and upgrading heavy oil or bitumen comprising transferring at least a portion of the solvent fraction to the production site to dilute the heavy oil or bitumen to form the mixture. The process is limited in this patent to more than 2 API crude (2 to 15 APIs are claimed) and the heavy crude oil, such as bitumen, is limited to 15% And these conditions are entirely rejected in this process, the conditions allowed in the process limit the overall yield to less than 85% of the total barrel.

U.S. Patent No. 7,964,090 describes a method for upgrading heavy asphaltene crude using solvent deasphalting and gasification. What is interesting in this patent is that a stream to a gasifier is produced by mixing a hydrocarbon containing one or more asphaltenes and one or more non-asphaltenes with a solvent, wherein a stream to the hydrocarbon The ratio of the solvent is from about 2: 1 to about 10: 1. The asphaltene-rich stream is transferred from the solvent deasphalter to the gasifier as a liquid stream. A large amount of solvent used in the transfer is consumed in the gasifier and downgraded to the fuel gas equivalent. Because of the tendency of asphaltenes to become liquids, it can be realized to use the solvent in the stated amounts to transfer the material. For solid asphaltenes, this method may require 10 to 20 times more solvent for transfer, and expensive solvents may be consumed in large amounts in the process and its value may be reduced.

Basically, an improved process for producing crude oil and refinery feedstocks for pipeline from heavy crude oil such as Canadian oil sand bitumen is described, which process comprises: (1) Performing an optimal asphaltene conversion with offgas to produce a thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction, a minimal non-compressible vapor stream, and an increased refinery-feed liquid stream; (2) deasphalting the thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction into an oil refinery-feed liquid stream and a concentrated asphaltene stream; (3) selectively hydrocreating specific hydrocarbon components as required by the pipeline standard and finally combining all of the liquid streams into an oil refinery source; And (4) inertial separation of the concentrated solid asphaltene stream for conversion in a gasifier, power station or asphalt plant.

The bitumen is thermally treated to remove and convert / decompose the selected asphaltene, which is subsequently sufficiently separated in a more efficient solvent extraction process to reduce the production of coke and to remove unwanted contaminants (metal, MCR, Palettes).

Considering the relative complexity and high degree of side chains to the bitumen asphaltene of Canada, under the operating conditions of the present invention as described in the present application, the side chains are preferentially decomposed from core asphaltenes and converted into certain reduced pressure diesel vacuum gas oil is made up of components in the light hydrocarbon range. The remaining thermally affected polyaromatic asphaltene cores remain in the solid at elevated temperatures and pressures above the operating conditions and are therefore able to be used as solvent deasphalting 50 and inertial separation 110, Are more easily separated than non-thermally affected asphaltenes resulting from improved separation processes.

In addition, heavier hydrocarbons in the bitumen are also cracked moderately with reduced pressure diesel, gasoline and distillate boiling range components, all of which are desirable for separation and conversion in refineries. Any major deviations in temperature and heat fluxes in the bitumen pool in the reactor cause coking and increased gas yield and reduction in overall crude oil yield of the original bitumen and reduced reliability of operation, The operation cost can be increased.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of feedstocks from feedstocks having moderate, high asphaltene crudes (e.g., Canadian bitumen) and any virgin or feedstock having utility to the already treated hydrocarbon stream, An improved apparatus and method for producing a refinery-ready feedstock, the method and apparatus comprising preheating the process fluid to a predetermined operating temperature or near the reactor's design temperature, &Lt; / RTI &gt; Transferring the process fluid into the reactor for conversion of the process fluid and applying controlled heat to the process fluid in the reactor to maintain the process fluid at a substantially uniform temperature throughout the reactor, To produce a stream of liquid hydrocarbons vapor accompanied by a stream of the received asphaltene-rich fractions and a minimal non-condensable vapor. The stream of steam is further separated into two streams of non-condensing vapor and light liquid hydrocarbon. The thermally-affected asphaltene-rich fraction was first mixed using a high-shear mixer and subsequently subjected to a de-asphaltated oil using a single-stage solvent extraction process And deasphalted to streams of concentrated asphaltenes. The deasphalted oil liquid and the hard liquid hydrocarbons produced in the processes are mixed to form a feedstock for the pipeline and the refinery. The concentrated asphaltenes are processed in an inertial separation unit to produce a dry solid asphaltene byproduct.

A sweep gas may be used in the reactor and may be preheated to provide a heat flux source other than the heater of the reactor; The sweep gas may also assist in the removal of reactor steam organisms.

Deasphalting is achieved using at least one extraction step (further steps may be used) and a low pressure stripper under conditions outside of any known solvent extraction process. Because the initial process fluid is thermally affected, the heavy asphaltene-rich fractions have lower solvent-to-oil ratios than typically found in high-shear mixers and similar upgrader operations. Can be further separated using a single extraction process of lower complexity using a combination of temperature and pressure. By further concentrating the asphaltene-rich fraction prior to the final extraction step, even more improved solvent-extraction performance and improved DAO yield can be achieved using solvent ratios even for lower total oil. This process improves the prior art solvent deasphalting utilizing a separate solvent extraction column (rinse column) that acts on the asphaltene-rich stream from the primary solvent extraction column to produce pipeline crude oil recovery And quality.

The solvent deasphalting process may allow a portion of the heavy asphaltene-rich hydrocarbon stream to be recycled and mixed with fresh feed to the reactor.

The resulting concentrated, thermally-affected asphaltene can be successfully processed in an inertial separator such as a centrifugal collector or settling chamber to produce a dry, solid asphaltene byproduct.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Various aspects of the present invention will now be described, by way of illustration and not by way of limitation, in the figures in greater detail in the drawings with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts throughout the several views.
1 is a process diagram for forming a pipeline-transportable hydrocarbon product from a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock; And
2 is a process diagram particularly relevant to the cracking process and the liquid separation process and the solid separation process; And
Figure 3 illustrates an improved solvent tank with accompanying moderate thermal cracking and vacuum and / or coke units in accordance with one or more of the described embodiments, or with an appropriately positioned shear mixing device in an existing upgrader or refinery An exemplary application of the asphaltization process is described.
FIG. 4 illustrates a process for the production of cracked / solvent deasphalted (SDA), hydrocracking, residual hydrocracking and gasification units from an existing upgrader or refinery in accordance with one or more of the described embodiments. ) Of a concentrated, gentle pyrolysis and improved solvent deasphalting process, fed with a vacuum bottoms stream from a refinery (see Figure 3).

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various embodiments of the invention and is not intended to represent the only embodiments contemplated by the inventors. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a comprehensive understanding of the present invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

It is to be understood that other aspects of the present invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein various embodiments of the invention are shown and described in a manner that is illustrative of the invention. It is to be understood that the invention is capable of other embodiments and that various of its various details are capable of modifications of various other aspects without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Figure 1 is a process flow diagram depicting a process 10 for forming a hydrocarbon product 160 from a hydrocarbon feedstock 12 wherein the final hydrocarbon product 160 comprises at least the minimum pipeline transport requirements 19 Minimum API weight) and is the preferred refinery feedstock. The process fluid 14 formed from the feedstock 2 of heavier hydrocarbons is transferred through the heater 20 to be heated to a predetermined temperature level before the process fluid is supplied to the reactor 30. [ And in the reactor the process fluid 14 is controlled and maintained while performing a moderately controlled cracking process. After the moderate cracking process a hard top fraction 32 can be transferred from the reactor 30 to a gas liquid condensing separator process 40 and a heavy bottom fraction the bottom fraction 34 can be transferred to the high performance solvent extraction process 50. A portion of the outputs 52 and 54 from the gas-liquid separation process 40 may be mixed with the products 52 and 54 of the high performance solvent extraction process 50 to separate the final hydrocarbon product 160 May result in a hydrocarbon product (160) having sufficient physical properties to enable it to meet certain pipeline transmission criteria without mixing with diluents from sources or requiring much reduced volumes of such diluent have.

The feedstock 12 can be a heavy hydrocarbon such as a heavy hydrocarbon obtained from steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) (a fresh or already treated stream), for example Canadian oil sands bitumen or heavy hydrocarbons Or any other suitable source. In one aspect, the feedstock 12 may have an API weight within the range of 0 to 14.

In one aspect, the recycle section 70 of the resin stream 54 product from the high performance solvent extraction process 50 is mixed with the incoming feedstock 12 and passed through the process 10, (14) can be formed. The resin stream can be added to the process fluid in cases where additional crude oil yield and / or harder crude oil and / or asphaltene depressions are required to meet the treated product property goals. Resin recirculation provides the operator with the flexibility to meet production specifications through adjustable flow parameters and allows for good handling of feedstock changes at the plant.

The resin product 54 from the solvent extraction process 50 may typically have a relatively low API weight. In one aspect, the API weight of the resin product 54 may have an API weight between 0 and 10. Depending on the properties of the feedstock 12 and the amount of resin product 54 mixed with the feedstock 12, the resulting process fluid 14 has a certain range of properties and in particular a certain range of API specific gravity .

The process fluid 14 (obtained entirely from the feedstock 12 or formed from a mixture of the feedstock 12 and the resin product 54 from the solvent extraction process 50) Where the process fluid 14 is transferred to the reactor 30 and the process fluid 14 can be heated to a predetermined temperature as it passes through the heater 20 prior to performing the thermal decomposition . The reactor 30 maintains a constant fluid temperature through uniform application of heat across the reactor to allow for moderate pyrolysis without problems or detrimental coking to the operation and / or performance of the reactor.

In one aspect, the heater 20 will heat the process fluid 14 to a temperature of 675-775 ° F. before the process fluid 14 is introduced into the reactor 30.

Within the reactor 30, the process fluid 14 (heated to between 675 and 775 F by the heater 20) performs a moderate controlled cracking process. Appropriately positioned heaters are provided in the reactor 30 to maintain a predetermined constant temperature generated in the heater 20 and to apply a constant flow of heat to the fluid 14. [ The heaters provide heat through any readily available source (electricity, heat transfer fluid, radiation, etc.). The reactor 30 is primarily adapted to reduce or even prevent the formation of coke during the reaction by optimizing five inter-related process variables (temperature, pressure, residence time, sweep gas and heat flow) And to provide optimal conversion of refinery feedstock components of a portion of the asphaltene portion of the heavy hydrocarbon while minimizing gas production.

The first and second parameters are determined by applying a uniform flow of heat between 7000 and 12000 BTU / hr sq. Ft (zero calorie / hour / cubic foot) to the entire tank of process fluid in the reactor, RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; 775 F. &Lt; / RTI &gt; This can be achieved by the presence of heating devices which are suitably sized and located in the reactor. The number of heaters is determined by calculating the variance of heat between any two heaters to have a uniform temperature throughout the set and to avoid peak or spot temperatures significantly higher than the target temperature in the reactor .

The third variable, residence time, can be between 40 and 180 minutes in the reactor.

The fourth reactor parameter, operating pressure, may be at or near atmospheric pressure, in accordance with standard pressure control principles used for constant performance, and in any case less than or equal to 50 psig. The pressure range is controlled such that the low end is essentially controlled to prevent excessive premature flashing of the hydrocarbon bypassing the reactor and the high end reduces the secondary cracking and subsequent increased gas yield .

A hot sweep gas 36, which is a fifth reactor parameter in the same temperature range (675-775 ° F) 21 as the process fluid, is in the range of 20 to 80 scf / bbl (standard cubic feet per barrel) in the reactor 30 Is added to the process fluid (14).

The sweep gas 36 may be a natural gas, hydrogen, produced / fuel gas produced from the process, steam, nitrogen, or any other non-condensable liquid that can not condense into liquid in the reactor environment. Reactive, non-condensable gas.

A sweep gas with a feed capacity of 20 to 80 scf / bbl is provided so that the "harder" hydrocarbon products (i.e., hydrocarbons with boiling point below methane to 750)) are immediately removed as soon as they are generated in the reactor 30 Thereby minimizing secondary cracking which can increase gas production and potentially increase the production of olefinic naphtha / distillate.

The sweep gas also allows the reactor to operate closer to a predetermined working pressure (less than 50 psi) and temperature. The sweep gas 36 may also be used to provide additional heat and / or to mix the process fluid 14 within the reactor 30.

1 and 2, the thermal energy stream 36 for the reactor 30 is maintained at a predetermined temperature (675 to 775 F) and at a pressure (less than 50 f) (7000 to 12000 BTU / hr sq. Ft.) Over the residence time (40 to 180 minutes) to minimize the peak fluid temperature of any locational region capable of initiating coking, thereby increasing the bulk temperature temperature to allow for improved heat transfer of the heat to improve the conversion of hydrocarbons in the reactor 30. In these operating conditions, the reaction kinetics preferentially decompose the outgoing hydrocarbon chains for the refinery, without causing coking or increased gas production in the reactor 30, Of the hydrocarbons (reduced pressure gas oil (VGO) and diesel range hydrocarbons). As an example, Table 1 shows the different configurations of asphaltenes for different types of crude oil. The proposed working conditions of the reactor 30 take into account the relative complexity and high degree of side chains for different crude oils.

[Table 1]

Each variable can be independently varied within the proposed ranges depending on the quality of the feedstock provided or the quality of the desired product. Because the five mentioned process variables are inter-related, a multi-adjustable process control scheme for the target function described above (e.g., the maximum yield that meets minimum product specifications) It may be advantageous to ensure that the process is operated at the optimum point in the event that any one of them is changed or a supply / manufacturing situation or target is changed.

Once the process fluid 14 remains in the reactor 30 for a sufficient amount of time to allow the light overhead fraction 32 to reach the desired quality when the properties of the products of the reactor 30 reach certain qualities, And the heavy bottom fractions 34 may be removed from the reactor 30.

The hard overhead fraction 32 of the product from the reactor 30 may comprise non-condensable vapor products, light liquid hydrocarbons, and heavier liquid hydrocarbons. The steam products are introduced into the reactor 30 as well as the vapors emitted from the process fluid 14, such as sour gas, during the thermal decomposition and are introduced into the reactor 30 through unconverted or unused sweeps Gas 36 may be used.

The overhead liquid fraction 32 will have a much higher API weight than the bottom fraction 34. For example, the overhead liquid fraction 32 will typically have an API specific gravity of 26 or greater. The overhead fraction 32 may be directed to the gas-liquid separation unit 40, which in one embodiment may include a cooler 41 and a separation drum 42, wherein the naphtha And a portion of the overhead fraction 32, which is a condensable liquid product comprising heavier hydrocarbons, can be separated from the gaseous components of the overhead fraction 32. An off-gas line 43 containing unwanted gases such as sour gas may be provided to the separation drum 42 to allow these gases to be discarded, recycled, or applied to further processing have.

One or more liquid hydrocarbon streams may be produced from the separation drum 42. Stream 44, which is a heavier hydrocarbon than stream 46, may be dispensed for product mixing while stream 46 may be further bulk hydro-treated prior to product mixing .

The bottom fraction 34 may comprise hydrocarbons and modified asphaltenes. Although the characteristics of the bottom fraction 34 taken from the reactor 30 may vary depending on the input of the process fluid 14 into the reactor 30 and the operating parameters of the reactor, , The bottom fraction (34) may have an API specific gravity within the range of between -7 and 5.

The controllable process variables allow the operator to change the performance of the reactor to meet the requirements of the end product based on the changing properties of the process fluid 14 being introduced.

The controllability of the five mutually-related variables in the reactor 30, i.e. residence time, sweep gas, heat flow, temperature and pressure, allows the operator to vary the performance of the reactor 30 .

In this way, when the properties of the feedstock 12 are changed, such as with other new sources or more or fewer resin recycle portions 70, the production of coke is avoided and produced in the reactor 30 The five mutually-related process variables can be optimized to minimize the generation of non-condensable vapors that may be present. For example, the operator can determine the process fluid 14 in the reactor 30 based on the properties of the process fluid 14 to obtain a desired yield and / or quality of products 32, Can be changed. Alternatively, the operator may change the sweep gas, temperature or pressure to achieve similarly cut out results. The process variables are inter-related and the minimization of coke and avoidance of excessive gas production are challenging and are best determined by pilot operation, which can be performed without undue experimentation.

The bottom fraction 34 from the reactor 30 contains a high performance solvent extraction process 50 capable of producing a thermally affected asphaltene stream 58, an extracted oil stream 52 and a resin stream 54, E. The reactor 30 is operated in a manner that significantly limits the production of coke and even prevents and reduces gas production while converting the asphaltene to more suitable components for downstream processing. Thus, the asphaltene and other undesired elements remain in the bottom fraction 34 from which the reactor 30 is removed.

The bottom fraction 34 from the reactor 30 may be recycled, for example, in a high performance solvent extraction process (not shown), to maximize recovery of certain refinery feedstock crude oil from undesirable elements remaining in the bottom fraction 34 Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; 50 &lt; / RTI &gt; The processing of the bottom fraction 34 by the solvent extraction process 50 may be used together with the reactor 30 and the solvent extraction process 50 to produce a full range of refinery feedstock crude oil .

The solvent extraction process 50 may comprise any suitable solvent extraction process. In one aspect, this can be a three-stage super-critical solvent process that separates asphaltenes from the resins in the bottom fraction 34. The product of the solvent extraction process 50 may be an asphaltene stream 58, an extracted oil stream 52, and a resin stream 54. The asphaltene stream 58 is typically undesirable and is removed from the process 10. The extracted oil stream 52 may be of relatively high quality with an API specific gravity of 9-15. The resin stream 54 is typically of a lower quality than the extracted oil stream 52 having a lower API gravity than the extracted oil stream 52. In one aspect, the resin stream 54 may have an API specific gravity within a range of 0 to 10 API grains.

The extracted oil stream 52 and the resin stream 54 from the solvent extraction process 50 are mixed with the liquid product stream 44 obtained from the liquid gas separator 40 to form the pipeline- The final hydrocarbon product 160 that meets the specifications for the solvent and / or refinery. In one aspect, this final hydrocarbon product 160 will have an API weight of 19 or greater. Typically, the final hydrocarbon product 160 will have a viscosity of 350 CentiStokes ("cSt ") or less.

The resin stream 54 is typically of lower quality than the extracted oil stream 52. The recycle section 70 of the resin stream 54 may be mixed with the feedstock 12 to be reprocessed to form the final hydrocarbon product 160. As a result, this recycle of the resin stream will improve the quality of the final hydrocarbon product 160.

In another aspect, in FIG. 2, an optimal solvent deasphalting and solid separation scheme is depicted when operating with the five inter-related variables and thus integrating with the reactor 30 for maximum yield. A shear mixer 25 and a single asphaltene extractor 50 are provided to separate the solid asphaltenes, stream 51, in the stream 58 from the oil and solvent. Due to the thermally-affected asphaltenes produced in the reactor 30, the solvent extraction can occur in one stage and can occur at a solvent to oil weight ratio of at least about 2.5: 1 and below the critical point for the solvent May be effective in operating conditions. As a result of the low energy / intensity singlet extraction, a single low pressure solvent stripper working stream 41 is economical and effective for separating the solvent recovered as product deasphalted oil 52 and stream 101. Stream 58, which is a concentrated asphaltene solid stream, is treated in an inertial separator 60 to separate into a solvent vapor stream 62 and a dry solid asphaltene stream 61. Stream 62 is condensed 110 and the solvent recycled for use in the process. The dry solids are dispensed or otherwise handled into the dry solid reservoir 130. The inertial separation unit 110 separates the asphaltene solids from the gas residual solvent in the stream 58 using a combination of forces such as centrifugal force, gravity and inertial force. These forces may move the asphaltene solid to a zone where the forces exerted by the gas stream are minimized. The separated solid asphaltenes can be moved into the hopper by gravity, where they are temporarily stored. The unit 110 may be a sedimentation chamber, a baffle chamber, or a centrifugal force collector, which is a device that provides inertial separation of solids and gases. The centrifugal force collectors may be single or multi-stage cyclones. If solvent deasphalting unit 50 is entirely effective in separating the asphaltene from the resin, DAO and solvent, stream 58 is injected with a suitable low molecular weight gas (e. G., Natural gas or nitrogen) The asphaltene solid may be provided to provide pneumatic conveyance which may otherwise be provided by the ejection of the remaining process solvent in the line. Aerodynamic transport systems can transport solids up to a particle size of approximately 50 mm. The solids should be dried to have a water content of 20% or less and not to be sticky. The thermally-affected asphaltene solids meet the criteria and the process thereby advantageously utilizes the inertial separation unit 110.

The high performance solvent extraction process 50 involves another optional extraction process step 55 with another shear mixer 235 to increase the overall recovery of the product hydrocarbons from the reactor 30 and reduce the solvent circulation rate. . &Lt; / RTI &gt; A separate solvent extraction step for the asphaltene-rich stream with the second extractor 55 uses standard liquid-liquid extraction for the same solvent used in the primary extractor. Since the solvent-to-oil ratio can be economically increased to 20: 1 in this column to increase the recovery of deasphalted oil while total solvent use can be reduced, this standard liquid for the asphaltene- The arrangement of the liquid column may be advantageous. The total solvent used to achieve high hydrocarbon recovery in stream 52 may be 25% less than comparable processes of the prior art. The result is a significant reduction in energy consumption compared to the state of the art in the three-step extraction process. The resulting asphaltene stream 58 may be processed 20% less in the asphaltene separation unit 110. The core portion of the remaining concentrated, thermally-affected asphaltene is a solid with hydrocarbon side chains removed even at elevated temperatures (above 700 [deg.] F) and results in less volume being handled in the asphaltene separation unit. In addition, the denatured properties of the asphaltenes can be used for more efficient reclamation of metals and clean energy conversion techniques (e.g., gasification, catalytic gasification, oxy-fuel combustion for improved steam-assisted gravity drainage production (oxy-combustion)).

Process 10 in FIG. 1 is pipeline compliant and provides a crude feedstock that is optimal for high conversion refiners. Stream 160 has a low metal (less than 20 wppm nickel + vanadium), a low asphaltene (less than 0.3 wt%), an extremely low total TAN number (less than 0.3 mg KOH / mg), and no diluent, Diesel fuel is high (30-50% of crude oil). For high conversion purifiers (conversion to coke over 1.4: 1), the distillation quality of the crude oil produced in stream 160 will meet the remaining units whilst improving the utilization of the profit-maximizing unit. Table 2 shows the percentage of each boiling point material contained in one barrel of various representative streams of crude oil streams relative to stream 160 of process (10). The "non-upgraded" feedstock (dilbit = diluted bitumen and WCS = Western Canada Select) contains more than 35% more vacuum heavy residue than the entire barrel ) (More than 950 ° F) and require more light materials (C5's of carbon atoms) to transfer to refineries than intensive conversion and refineries can benefit from refining with transport fuels do. On the other hand, a completely upgraded / produced refinery feedstock (SSB = sweet synthetic blend) does not essentially contain a reduced pressure residue or a hard substance (C5's). It is not adjusted and therefore has volume limitations for refiners. The refiners are required to have a reduced pressure residue of 10 to 25%, a gas oil of 20 to 50% (HVGO = heavy reduced gas oil, LVGO = light reduced gas oil, AGO = atmospheric gas oil), 40 to 60% Have developed operations to process the entire well-regulated feedstock including diesel range materials. As shown in Table 2, the stream 160 is primarily heavy-duty conventional well-conditioned crude oil (ANS = Alaska North Slope) with respect to the hydrocarbon composition in the same range as other heavy conventional crude oils ), WTI = West Texas Intermediate, and MSO = Medium Sour (Midale).

[Table 2]

The combination of reactor 30, high performance solvent extraction processing unit 50 and inertial separation unit 110 represents reduced process complexity. This can be represented by a Nelson complexity index value of 4.0 to 4.5 which is significantly less than 9.0 to 10.0 for coking and / or hydrotreating processes. Another explanation for improved performance is that when compared to a delayed coking process that requires an energy input of 4.70 GJ / tonne (gigajoules / tonne) feed to operate, the 3.93 GJ / tonne It is a reduced energy demand of the feedstock. This is a 16.4% decrease in energy intensity compared to the heavy coking process. This is comparable to the 0.253 tonne CO2 / tonne feed for the heavy coking process and the 0.213 tonne CO2 / tonne feed for the proposed process (0.213 tonne C02 / tonne feed) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on product comparisons, the energy reduction is approximately 25 to 27% for the coking process.

When compared with the coking upgrading process and the standard reactor and solvent extraction process, process 10 provides a clear improvement in yield by minimizing byproducts (coke and non-condensable hydrocarbons) as noted in Table 3 to provide.

[Table 3]

Another advantage that contributes to lowering the operating temperature and pressure, along with the lower complexity of process (10), is the low capital cost. The facility is less demanded and the flange rating that can be used is just below the "break-point", where the material standards change due to the pressure and temperature involved, which increases the cost. Considering the high sulfur concentration and TAN rating of the material, the 304L / 316LSS material is an appropriate choice for reliability. For this metallurgy, class 300 piping and flanges can be handled between 400 ℉ and 415 하나 as one embodiment (source: ASME / ANSI B16.5 1988/2009 specification). The solvent deasphalting unit can be operated at a maximum of 400 ℉ and 400,, so that Class 300 can be specified. When compared to known solvent deasphalting processes, higher pipe / flange classes such as class 600 required to handle higher operating temperatures and pressures of other processes will be required. For example, for processes of the known solvent deasphalting structure involving class 600 flanges that cost eight times the price of a class 300 flange, the overall capital cost savings for process (10) may range from 20 to 30 %. &Lt; / RTI &gt;

As appropriate for the novel grassroots facilities, Figure 3 shows an example of the above described intensive, controlled pyrolyzer and improved solvent deasphalting of the present invention to existing upgraders . The proposed, intensive process, reactor 30, simplified solvent deasphalting 50 and asphaltenes recovery 110 can be located upstream of the coking unit of the refinery / upgrader. An advantage to the refiner / upgrader is the ability to debottleneck the vacuum and coke unit and the ability to accept heavier crude oil in the unit. The handling of more barrels on existing installations equates to greater and economic returns on invested capital. In addition, higher quality materials may be sent to the coking unit 300 to reduce operating severity, increase the cycle time (12 to 24 hours) for the coker, Gas and coke can increase the lifetime of the coker by producing less and producing more products. The capital costs to replace the equipment can be delayed and an increase in yield can be realized (about 2 to 3%). The solid asphaltenes trapped in the solvent deasphalting are readily obtainable at the disposal and the stream 302, which is the existing coke gathering and transport system that makes the addition of the proposed intensive process, And is greatly beneficial.

As indicated by unit 200 in FIG. 3, stream 12 may be atmospheric, subatmospheric, or bottom stream from a contact pyrolysis unit. The condensed cracker and solvent deasphalting process produces a DAO stream 52 that can be further treated as a transport fuel of the stream 401 in the hydrocracking and hydrotreating combined unit 400. The compacted cracker and solvent deasphalting process may also be used to coke, fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC), and / or a resin quality stream 54 that can be sent to an asphalt plant to further process the finished products. Can be produced. As noted above, the solid asphaltenes produced in stream 61 may be mixed with the coke produced in unit 300 or sent off-site to further process (energy production and / or Sequestration).

As an example, FIG. 4 shows a specific embodiment for a new design or modification opportunity for refiners and / or upgraders. Unit 200 is a vacuum unit and the bottoms stream 12 is directed to the intensive decomposer / solvent deasphalting process, units 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 110. The DAO stream 52 is sent to the hydrocracking and hydrotreating unit 400 along with the stream 205 from the vacuum unit. The resin stream 54 is produced from the unit 50 and sent to the residue hydrocracking unit 500. For the less exothermic asphaltenes that are sent to the unit 500 when they are reacted, the residue hydrocracker can be operated at a high conversion rate (+8 to 15%) to produce more material as the final transport fuel product have. From the unit 110 the solid asphaltene stream 61 may be sent to the gasification unit for hydrogen production.

As in FIG. 3, the advantages of adding the intensive unit to FIG. 4 include the reduction of demineralization or coking unit size when the maximum yield of crude oil entering the plant is present; Reduction of de-bottlenearization or residue hydrolysis size when present; De-bottlenecking or reduction of gasification unit size when present; Reduced total carbon footprint for the complex; May be included.

The intensive process of Figure 2 also allows for the acceptance of sweet, low-complexity (hydro-skimming) oil refineries that are easier to obtain, By accommodating a wide range of feedstock, it can help reposition the assets to better capture the value. The intensive process is located at the front of the refinery, To provide initial conditioning.

Comparison of working conditions

The novel arrangements and features of the intensive process of the present invention are technically feasible to provide an opportunity to operate in areas that were not previously possible in any prior art process and thereby treat heavy hydrocarbons below API of zero Possible and economically desirable / superior solutions. This low complexity process, which results in low operating and capital costs with DAO volumetric yields of 89 to 91% and solvent losses of less than 2%, is a cost effective process for producing pipeline and refinery feedstocks (Based on the ratio of revenue). Table 4 provides a comparison of the present invention with some representative existing patents. The items in bold (bold) indicate either directly limiting prior art or unfavorable conditions when compared to process (10). None of the techniques compared achieved the same yields described for the heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks in the API density range of 0 to 7. The comparison includes intensive cracker and solvent deasphalting units and also solvent deasphalting only. Since the present invention borrows some of the concepts of the pyrolyzer process outlined in U.S. Patent No. 7,957,695 as part of its operation, no comparisons have been made to pyrolyzer processes. What is important in Table 4 is that the unique combination of operating conditions for the pyrolyzer simplifies the solvent deasphalting that can be operated with the unique combination of operating conditions and the use of inertial separators handling strictly asphaltic solids and solvent vapors Allow.

[Table 4]

With this intensive process, crude oil within the API range of 0 to 12+ can be reliably processed. In addition, the solvent deasphalting unit 50 can reliably receive feedstocks within the range of -5 to 0. The use of sweep gas (not used in other similar processes), uniform heat flow (not retained in other processes), low operating pressures and temperatures allow for moderate, favorable reactions to reduce heavier hydrocarbons in this range With the existing hydrocarbons to the range of light gas oil suitable for pipeline transportation. Minimal coke formation and hard gas formation keeps most of the hydrocarbons (over 90% of the crude barrel) in the desired product. Asphaltenes have also been converted from a "tacky" molecule to a "crunching" molecule. The modified asphaltene-rich stream can be treated in a simplified solvent deasphalting process with a combination of new operating conditions at API densities of -7 to 0. A single extraction step involving an inert solid separator and a low pressure solvent stripper may all be required to achieve the above-mentioned high yields. As shown in Table 5, the weight ratio of solvent to oil can be in the range of 2 to 4: 1 for preferred solvents within the range of 6 (C6) carbon and 7 (C7) carbon. The temperature in the single extraction column is lower than the threshold and the pressure is the same. In these low working conditions, energy use is greatly reduced and only a single low pressure stripper is required. Less physical equipment and configurations of less expensive materials are required to lower the overall investment cost compared to other concepts.

Solvent selection

In order to be economically feasible whilst being technically feasible, the solvent for de-asphaltating the heavy crude oil (below 2 API) should only contain the required asphaltenes while maintaining the DAO in solution with the solvent (Sufficiently high molecular weight). In addition, the solvent should be light enough to vaporize during transfer (solid asphaltene addition solvent) of the asphalt extractor residues without requiring a large amount of energy.

Similarly, the working temperature should be cold enough to encourage DAO dissolution in the solvent and warm enough to vaporize the solvent during transport of the solid asphaltenes. For this process, the solid asphaltene precipitation of the solution is largely insensitive to solvent selection. Table 5 provides a comparison of solvents considered when treating heavy viscous hydrocarbons (API of -7 to 0 for solvent deasphalting). Solvents with 6 carbon atoms and 7 carbon atoms provide a high yield (89-91%) with reduced complexity of the process creating new and economically feasible processes.

[Table 5]

Based on similar efficacy of the C 6 and C 7 solvents for separating asphaltenes, a mixture of these hydrocarbons can be considered to reduce cost. An approximate fraction of the transport diluent can be extracted and considered for use as the solvent in the solvent deasphalting. It has been confirmed in the test that a mixture of 5 to 8 carbon atoms (6 carbon atoms and more than 760% of the carbon) can be a low-cost choice when supplying the solvent for the process (10). This further reduces operating costs through providing readily obtainable solvents that are specified as the original diluent for the feedstock for the process.

The foregoing detailed description of the above-described embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention . Accordingly, while the invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown in the present application, it is contemplated that there is a sufficient view consistent with the claims, and where the article "a" or "an" Quot; is not intended to be " one and only one "unless it is" one or more. &Quot; It is intended that all structural and functional equivalents of those elements of the various embodiments described throughout the above detailed description to be known or later known to those skilled in the art are included in the scope of the claims . In addition, nothing described in this application is intended to be dedicated to the public, regardless of whether such technology is expressly referred to in the claims.

Glossary of terms used in this application

Applicants submit the following to assist the reader in interpreting the present patent application. Of course, these definitions do not supersede the common and common meanings of these definitions as may be understood by those skilled in the art in the technical field of the present invention, In order to clearly show the difference of one or more meanings that may exist with respect to the present invention.

Asphaltene-asphaltenes are (1) insoluble in n-pentane (or n-heptane) at a dilution ratio of 40 parts alkane to 1 part crude oil, and (2) It is a substance in crude oil which is redissolved in toluene.

Bituminous - shares the properties of heavy oil but is still thicker and more viscous.

Natural bitumen is a viscous oil having a viscosity of 10,000 cP (centipoise) or more and typically an API having an API of 10 or more (< 10).

Bottoms - crude material that does not vaporize in the pyrolyzer mentioned above. It is basically composed of gas oil, resin and asphaltene.

Canadian Bitumen - crude oil with a weighted proportion of 10 or more APIs from Canadian suppliers.

Canadian Heavy Crudes - includes both conventional heavy oil and bitumen with more than 20 APIs.

Deasphalted oil (DAO) - A portion of heavy oil, most of which is removed by boiling over 500 ° F nominally.

Gas oil - Any crude oil portion boiling within the range of 520-1000 ° F.

Heavy oil - is a mixture of asphaltic, chemically defined asphaltic, low (API low specific gravity below 20 API) and viscous oil (limit of 100 cP) whose content is chemically defined as asphaltene (most sulfur and possibly 90% Very large molecules including metals).

Light ends - typically pentanes, pentylenes butanes, butylenes, propane, propylene, ethane, ethylene, and methane methane), and hydrocarbons of 5 carbon atoms or less include all the materials found in crude oil and bitumen having boiling points below 100 대기 at atmospheric conditions.

MCR refers to micro carbon residues.

Resin - A heavy oil fraction that is within the boiling point range above 800 ° F and can contain asphaltenes.

SDA means "solvent deasphalter" or "solvent deasphalting" and typically refers to a solvent deasphalting unit, which is solvent deasphalted (process using solvent (Or step) for the removal of asphalt from the fluid.

Syngas - A gaseous mixture consisting essentially of contaminants resulting from destructive distillation of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.

Topped crude oil - a portion of the crude oil stream after distillation or by other means of removal of significant amounts of more volatile components (eg gas oil) of crude petroleum.

Claims (22)

In a process for producing a feedstock for pipeline or refinery feed from heavy, high asphaltene feedstock process fluids and dry, thermally affected asphaltene solids,
(a) preheating a process fluid in a heater to a designed temperature;
(b) transferring the preheated process fluid to a reactor and converting the asphaltenes in the process fluid in the reactor to produce a first stream of thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction (s) and a second stream of vapor ;
(c) separating the second stream of the vapor into a third stream of non-condensable vapor and a fourth stream of lighter liquid hydrocarbon (s);
(d) mixing a solvent comprising at least one of (C 4) to (C 8) C 8 in a solvent extraction step with a first stream to precipitate solid asphaltene particles, thereby thermally affecting the first stream Wherein the solvent extraction process is operated at a temperature in the range of from 40 to 130 째 F below the critical temperature of the solvent and wherein the solvent extraction process is a deasphalting process in which the deasphalting oil DAO) and a sixth stream of concentrated asphaltene which is solid at the temperature operating range of the solvent extraction process, wherein the sixth stream is present as a slurry of precipitated aspartic microparticles in a portion of the liquid solvent -;
(e) mixing the heavy DAO of the fifth stream and the liquid hydrocarbons of the fourth stream into a feedstock for pipeline or refinery; And
(f) separating said sixth stream of concentrated asphaltene into a seventh stream of solid asphaltene dried in an inertial separation unit and an eighth stream of solvent for re-use in said process;
&Lt; / RTI &gt; The method according to claim 1,
As a continuous process, the reactor has the following parameters:
(a) a uniform flow of between 7000 and 12000 BTU / hr sq. ft introduced into the process fluid in the reactor;
(b) 20 to 80 scf / bbl (gas / process fluid) sweep gas introduced into the reactor;
(c) residence time of the process fluid in the reactor between 40 and 180 minutes;
(d) a substantially uniform operating temperature in the reactor between 675 and 775 F;
(e) working pressure in the reactor near atmospheric pressure of 50 psig or less;
Which is a single thermal conversion reactor with an overhead partial condenser operating within the furnace. The method according to claim 1,
As a continuous process, the solvent deasphalting can be accomplished by the following parameters:
(a) a solvent having a carbon number ranging from 6 to 7;
(b) a mass ratio of solvent to oil within the range of 2 to 4: 1;
(c) an asphalt extractor operated at a temperature within a range subtracted from the critical temperature of the solvent by 40 ℉ to 130;;
(d) an asphalt extractor operated at a pressure within a range of 40 to 240 psig subtracted from the critical pressure of the solvent;
, A simple asphalt extractor and a low pressure DAO / solvent recovery stripper. The method according to claim 1,
(f) the step uses an inertial separation unit. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the resultant feedstock for the solvent deasphalting step has an API of -8 to 0 and the feedstock for the process in which the resulting feedstock for the inertial separator is a solid at a temperature above 700 가 is in the range of 0 to 12 Process with API within. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the solvent is a fraction of a diluent (ranging from 5 to 8 carbon atoms) used to transport the bitumen feedstock to the field. The method according to claim 1,
In the step (d), the solvent deasphalting preheater, the first solvent deasphalting unit and the second solvent deasphalting unit are disposed in order, and the high shear mixing is performed in the solvent deasphalting preheater and the solvent deasphalting preheater The process being performed for a stream between the first solvent deasphalting unit or a flow between a first solvent deasphalting unit and a second solvent deasphalting unit. delete delete Apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons for the production of feedstocks for pipeline or refinery plants,
a) a process fluid production element for mixing heavy hydrocarbons with other materials as required to produce the process fluid;
b) conveying means for conveying the process fluid to a preheater;
c) a preheater capable of heating the process fluid to a temperature at or near a predetermined operating temperature of the reactor;
d) conveying means for conveying the heated process fluid to said reactor;
e) a reactor having a heat exchange means for providing a predetermined flow of heat to the process fluid and maintaining the process fluid in the reactor at a substantially constant predetermined temperature for a predetermined residence time;
f) means for providing a sweep gas to the process fluid in the reactor;
g) at least
i. Non-condensable steam
ii. Light liquid hydrocarbons
iii. The thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction
Means for removing a plurality of produced materials from the reactor at the end of the residence time;
h) means for separating the non-condensable vapor from the light liquid hydrocarbons;
i) transport means for transferring the thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction to a solvent extraction processor;
j) from the thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction
i. Deasphalted oil
ii. Suzy
iii. The precipitated solid, dry, thermally affected &lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt;
A solvent extraction processor involving means for removing the extracted products;
k) means for collecting the deasphalted oil, resin and light liquid hydrocarbons in an appropriate amount and mixing them together to provide a feedstock for the pipeline or refinery; And
l) recovering the solid, thermally affected precipitate from the solvent extraction processor so as to provide a solvent which can be reused in the process of the apparatus and used in a solvent extraction machine and dried and thermally affected asphaltene solid, Means for separating the solvent from the pallet. &Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; 8. &lt; / RTI &gt; 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the reactor is a single thermal conversion reactor carrying an overhead partial condenser. 12. The method of claim 11,
7,000 to 12,000 BTU / hr.sq.ft. Wherein the reactor is operated with a uniform flow of heat introduced into the process fluid in the reactor. 12. The method of claim 11,
And an apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons operated with sweep gas introduced into the reactor. 12. The method of claim 11,
An apparatus for processing heavy asphaltic hydrocarbons having a ratio of sweep gas to process fluid between 20 and 80 scf / bbl. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the sweep gas is at least one of nitrogen, steam hydrogen, or light hydrocarbons. 12. The method of claim 11,
And a heater for heating the sweep gas prior to introduction into the reactor. &Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; 8. &lt; / RTI &gt; 12. The method of claim 11,
An apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons operated with residence time for a working fluid in a reactor which lasts from 40 to 180 minutes. 12. The method of claim 11,
A reactor for providing a substantially uniform temperature between about 675 and about 775 F for the process fluid in the reactor; and an apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons involving an internal heater. 12. The method of claim 11,
And for processing the heavy high asphaltene hydrocarbons at or near atmospheric pressure to the process fluid in the reactor. 12. The method of claim 11,
Apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons operating at pressures below 50 psig. 11. The method of claim 10,
Apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons in which high-shear mixing is performed on the thermally-affected asphaltene removed from the reactor in step (g). 11. The method of claim 10,
Apparatus for processing heavy asphaltene hydrocarbons with pneumatic transport means for treating dry and solid asphaltenes.

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