WO2023180973A1

WO2023180973A1 - A topping plant unit comprising plasma torch for hydrogen production

Info

Publication number: WO2023180973A1
Application number: PCT/IB2023/052843
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michele Giordano
Original assignee: Michele Giordano
Priority date: 2022-03-23
Filing date: 2023-03-23
Publication date: 2023-09-28
Also published as: WO2023180973A9; IT202200005741A1

Abstract

A topping plant unit comprising a plasma torch with up to six input nozzles to receive hydrocarbons of crude oil to produce hydrogen by direct scission of molecules of the hydrocarbon. The toppling plant of the present invention makes a refinery "Green" by reducing emission of CO₂ and other climate-altering gases, as its furnaces will run on the produced hydrogen.

Description

A TOPPING PLANT UNIT COMPRISING PLASMA TORCH FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a topping plant of an oil refinery more particularly to a toppling plant that produces hydrogen and coal as by-product.

Background Art

[0002] The process of making hydrogen from oil and its fractions obtained in refineries is today of great interest and topicality.

[0003] The recent discussions in COP26 meeting (Glasgow) were suggestive of the possibility in future to close the oil refineries and therefore the extraction wells on the fields, and to switch to completely different sources of energy, the so-called renewable energies, which unfortunately are not exempt from causing damage to the planet, perhaps worse than those deriving from the Oil & Gas industry which for example were shown in Michael Moore's film: "Planet of the Humans ", scientifically and technologically indisputable, in its essential parts.

[0004] However, this is not contemplated by many and therefore oil and related refineries are declared to be in possible closure in the next twenty years.

[0005] Oil is not only an energy source, but a miracle of nature, since it contains innumerable molecules, which directly with industrial transformations, lead to chemical intermediates which are indispensable for any kind of use essential to today's civilization.

[0006] Therefore, there is a need of reducing the emission of climate-altering gases in the working of oil refineries/ crude oil processing plant.

Summary of the Invention

[0007] The present invention provides to eliminate the use of oil I oil refinery fractions that generate climate-altering gases, CO2 or others, but keep the fractions that are used instead for the production of chemical compounds directly or as intermediates. Given that the market fluctuates as to the quality and quantity of the various useful compounds, this present invention allows to modulate accordingly, which fractions of the refinery will be transformed into hydrogen and C and in what weight percentage. At the same time, the present invention also makes it possible to transform a heavier oil fraction into a lighter one, in case transformation into Hydrogen and Coal is not required, so it also replaces traditional cracking.

[0008] Therefore the present invention facilitates to make a refinery "Green" by preventing emission of CO2 or other climate-altering gases, as its furnaces will run on Hydrogen, a part of it will produce electricity from a clean source and the fractions that will come out of the refinery itself on the market will be only those that will not be destined for combustion, for example, gasoline, diesel, fuel oils will not be produced and placed on the market, immediately or decreasing over time, as the automotive sector adapts itself as engines.

[0009] Given the contribution of oil refineries on global warming, the present invention is of strategic importance, both directly because it avoids this pernicious contribution, but it is also fundamental because it allows not to close oil extraction, and therefore to preserve wealth and jobs.

[0010] The present invention provides non-cumbersome modifications of oil refinery plants and control panels; therefore the refinery is substantially transformed from the point of view of environmental impact, the contribution to the increase of CO2 and other climate-altering gases in the atmosphere is canceled. The present invention facilitates extraction of the fractions required as per the market requirement, all without creating the need for product storage.

[0011] According to an embodiment of the invention, a topping plant comprises a plasma torch comprising input nozzles to receive hydrocarbons of crude oil wherein by direct scission of molecules of the hydrocarbon, hydrogen is produced by with coal as by-product. Transformation into H2 and C of any hydrocarbon and in particular of all oil fractions can be done as per the demand of the market.

Brief description of the drawings

[0012] Figure 1 depicts various molecules of hydrocarbon.

[0013] Figure 2 depicts a topping plant unit in an oil refinery according to the prior art.

[0014] Figure 3 depicts a topping plant unit in an oil refinery according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

[0015] Each hydrocarbon molecule, or in particular each oil fraction, must reach particular temperatures to be reduced to the elementary molecules H2 and C. Therefore, it is not advisable, except for small quantities and in particular areas, to use a single thermal level to make this reduction total. The toppling pant of the present invention comprises various "cuts", substantially around the topping column, but not exclusively, modulating the thermal level necessary for the reduction reaction. The thermal level is not constant for each fraction, the oil fractions are not made up of a single molecule, but of many molecules, especially the so-called heavy fractions, while going towards the top of the Topping, the number of molecules making up a fraction thins and theoretically the top of the topping column is constituted as a hydrocarbon by CFU alone.

[0016] The present invention takes into account these peculiarities of each fraction, modulating the thermal level to reduce each one to the elementary molecules H2 and C, in whole or in part, according to the needs of the market, specified in the orders of customers.

[0017] The toppling plant unit as per the present invention, will have a common feature, which is the use of plasma torch.

[0018] Having to face different thermal levels, with differently wide range modulations, these plant emits will differ from each other in terms of construction, but they will maintain the plant design characterizing the present patent. In some refineries it will be possible to opt to process all or many fractions in the same reducing toppler plant unit, but in this case, to obtain the reduction of the heavier fractions, the plant unit with the average higher thermal levels and therefore the operation will be at higher energy consumption. [0019] Catalysts could be used to lower the thermal levels necessary to process each fraction, but it is preferred whenever possible, to do without them, to simplify the reduction process and obtain purer elementary products.

[0020] According to an embodiment of the invention there can be a plasma torch for each oil fraction. The plant comprises multiple plasma torch which rims vertically, alongside the Topping column, ad which, from bottom to top, has electrodes installed at an installed power suitable for achieving the objective of reducing elementary molecules H2 and C, the oil fraction it receives, through inlet nozzles, in correspondence with the various oil fractions produced by the Topping column.

[0021] According to an embodiment of the invention, the plant unit from bottom to top comprises inlets in the plasma torch of:

1. Primary residue (exit from the bottom of the topping column)

2. Diesel fuel

3. Kerosene

4. Naphtha

5. Light petrol

6. Non-condensable gases (Exit from the top of the topping column)

[0021] The crude oil can also be introduced directly into the mouth of the primary residue, which would process and reduce itself to the primary molecules H2 and C, but as mentioned the present invention does much more, allowing a perfect modulation of the production of different molecules and therefore maximizing economic gains.

[0022] The refinery emissions are also canceled out, also because obviously all the furnaces would run on hydrogen, which would also provide electricity for the plasma electrodes and other uses of the refinery. The toppler plant unit may also be referred as " Six-mouth Plasma Torch " or "Torche a Plasma six bouches" in French.

[0023] The six inlets [six bouches (French) / six mouths in (English) of the oil fractions in the Plasma Torch, will therefore correspond to the installation of plasma electrodes, optimized as characteristics for each fraction.

[0024] The reducing reaction products, i.e., Hydrogen and Carbon, will instead be discharged in a single outlet from above for Hydrogen, and from below for coal.

[0025] In practice it is a multiple plasma torch as geometric reaction zones for the reactants ( oil fractions), which needing different thermal levels for the optimization of their reduction reaction to the elementary molecules, are allowed to enter the different levels, but since the reaction products are all the same, they are discharged jointly for all levels, from above and from below, respectively, Hydrogen and Carbon.

[0026] For the rest, the " Six-mouth Plasma Torch " is engineered with electrodes and all other elements that offer economical manufacture.

[0027] In refineries that treat crude oils with compositions that give rise to small or no particular fractions, it is possible to make Torches with fewer "mouths" or with only one inlet. La Torche a Plasma six bouches however represents the optimization of oil fractions, the most complex possible, where it is worth optimizing the quantity and quality of the treatment. [0028] Depending on the installation in different refineries, the present technology can vary as regards engineering, even if the principle is always valid, as the crude oils extracted in the various parts of the world are remarkably different from each other, being oil a natural compound, derived over millennia from plants and animals.

[0029] The best known oil groups are the following:

I. RAW PARAFFIN: Average percentage composition: paraffins 60-70%, naphthenes 20-25%, aromatics 10 %.

Some American crudes and some from the Middle East fall into this category

II. RAW NAPHTHENIC AND AROMATIC: they are rarer, found in some fields in Russia, naphthenes 70%, paraffins 20%, aromatics 10% and in Indonesia with aromatics 35-40%

III. RAW PARAFFIN - NAPHTHENIC: they are among the most common, composition 45-50% of paraffins, 30-35% naphthenes, 15-18% aromatic. Above all we find them in the Middle East, where they make up the majority of the raw materials.

IV. RAW AROMATIC -NAPHTHENIC: we find them mainly in North America, and they are very valuable, with average compositions of 30% paraffin, 45% naphthenes, 25% aromatic.

[0030] There are also crude oils with a mixed naphthenic-aromatic base, found mainly in Venezuela and Mexico. The present invention facilitates to qualitatively and quantitatively dose the inputs to the mouths of the oil fractions obtained in the topping columns relating to refineries located in different geographical areas, which therefore process different crude oils.

[0031] At each inlet (bouche), the particular oil fraction will find a setting of the plasma electrodes relative to that mouth, which will supply exactly the energy sufficient to break the hydrocarbon bonds, splitting with a reducing reaction all the hydrocarbon molecules themselves, including in that oil fraction, in their elementary components: hydrogen and carbon. Obviously, therefore, this energy will be provided on the basis of the hydrocarbon molecule, included in that fraction, which requires a higher thermal level for the cleavage and reduction to H2 and C. All the other molecules included in the fraction will thus be able to split more easily and therefore it will be sure to transform the entire flow rate of the particular oil fraction into a particular inlet to the plasma torch into hydrogen and C.

[0032] In any case, in conclusion, the one that will come out of the Plasma Torch, engineered and used according to the object of this patent, will always be Hydrogen and C, without the emission of CO2 or other climate-altering gases.

[0033] Given the difference between the chemical analyzes of different refining fractions of different oils, the exact thermal level temperature used to reduce a certain input charge cannot be defined a priori, but it will be determined precisely by local chemical analyzes. The present invention works always and in any case, because the temperatures that can be obtained from plasma torches are so high (even more than 7000⁰ C) that they understand and widely exceed even those necessary to split the topping tail hydrocarbons or in general the heavier and more complex ones. The modulation of the temperatures in the various input levels of the different oil fractions is done only to optimize energy savings and ensure a low cost of the production of Hydrogen and C, through the application of the present invention.

[0034] As an alternative to heating by means of a plasma torch, other means can also be used, to heat hydrocarbons. The heating systems can even be mixed, work together in synergy with each other, or each separately at different times. [0035] To better illustrate the correspondence between the charges of each mouth of the Plasma Torch and their generation by means of the Topping Column, the diagram of the typical column of the refinery is reproduced here (Figure 1) and the present invention (Figure 2). It should be noted that the present invention can also have a reduced number of inputs and at the limit only one, in which the entire crude oil or the entire flow rate of raffinate is processed and that this plasma or other device that heats in order to obtain the same result, it can also be installed in other areas of the refinery, or directly on the crude oil extraction wells, which then transforms into hydrogen extraction wells or in any other place in the world where you want to split a hydrocarbon in Hydrogen and C, without the emission of CO2 or other climate-altering gases.

[0036] The drawing that follows in Fig. 1 (Topping Plant in Oil refinery) and Fig. 2 (present invention) therefore is intended to be only an illustration of one of the possible applications of the present invention, in what is considered its main place of choice: the refinery and in correspondence with the Cuts coming out of the Topping, for the reasons that have been explained here.

[0037] This vertical multiple plasma torch design of the present invention allows to optimize energy consumption, as well as for what has already been said, also because each flow rate of hydrogen is produced at different temperatures, and the one produced in the lower layers is hotter than that produced in the other layers. Therefore flowing upwards they meet the inlets of the colder oil fractions, exchanging heat and therefore acting as preheaters to favor this virtuous heat exchange, the design of the inlet nozzles of the various fluids entering liquids will not be horizontally, but inclined and tangential, thus assuming a cyclonic fluid dynamics.

[0038] The present invention relates only to the use of this particular multiple plasma torch or other system that achieves the same thermal levels and I or the same result, for the production of hydrogen and coal by direct splitting of hydrocarbon molecules either directly from oil, which also synthetic.

[0039] Regarding the thermal levels to be kept, they have been known for some time, as in the world various plasma torches split complex molecules, producing hydrogen, from non- recyclable plastics for example, which are molecules deriving directly from petroleum. Naturally in those cases, however, climate-altering gases are also formed, as there is the presence of oxygen in the waste that feed these plasma torches, and also the hydrogen obtained is not pure, and requires additional processes for its separation and purification. The present invention in the six-mouths plasma torch will only treat hydrocarbons, so there will be no greenhouse gas emissions, the hydrogen will be of a high degree of purity, as well as the C obtained.

[0040] Precisely on the temperatures of cleavage, on the hydrocarbon fractions, various experiments have already taken place since 2006, aimed at maximizing the formation of hydrogen from hydrocarbons.

[0041] In particular, Benilov's studies give a minimum and a maximum between which the splitting of all hydrocarbon molecules is certainly included, and is between 7000° K and 2000° K, from the heaviest to the lightest, so in the present invention torch with 6 mouths plasma, we will set up this range starting from the bottom, with 7000 ⁰ K, to go up towards the electrodes that will only treat the head cut of the topping, which will be at 2000° K. The intermediate ones will be kept higher than the cleavage value of the molecules of that cut, because no fraction is ever free of molecules of the heavier cut. So, at each level we will scale 1000° K from bottom to top. Naturally these values are indicative and with each system and for each daily charge they can be varied according to the variety of power supplies.

Claims

1. A topping plant unit comprising: a plasma torch with up to six input nozzles to receive hydrocarbons of crude oil, wherein by direct scission of molecules of the hydrocarbon, hydrogen is produced with coal as by-product.

2. The topping plant unit of claim 1, wherein heavier oil fractions of the crude oil are converted to lighter oil fractions simultaneously with the production of hydrogen.

3. The topping plant unit of claim 1, wherein the direct scission reaction is conducted with catalyst.

4. The topping plant unit of claim 1, wherein the direct scission reaction is conducted without catalyst.

5. The topping plant unit of claim 1, wherein the direct scission reaction is conducted at a pressure that may vary over time.