Production of lower molecular weight hydrocarbons

Inactive Publication Date: 2008-05-22
NEWTON JEFFREY P
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]It has further been found that the product of the process of the invention can be further improved by subjecting the product of a first treatment with the aqueous catalytic composition to additional treatments, with or without the addition of a diluent (e.g., a hydrocarbon based solvent), to further upgrade the product. This technique may be done under the same or less rigorous conditions as the first treatment and is of particular value with certain high molecular weight hydrocarbon feed stocks, such as heavy oil and bitumen.
[0008]A still further finding is that the presence and / or the addition of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the process produces reaction products greatly reduced in carbon oxides, enhances viscosity and density reduction, and stabilizes the product (e.g., stabilizes the density and / or viscosity of the product). Heavy oil frequently contains entrained carbon dioxide from the oil formation or from injection of carbon dioxide into the well to increase production. The heavy oil used in the tests discussed below contained up to about 5% entrained carbon dioxide. By converting the entrained carbon dioxide into useful hydrocarbon products, the inventive method creates valuable hydrocarbon products from carbon dioxide that is a disposal and environmental liability otherwise.

Problems solved by technology

More particularly, it has been discovered that the specific catalyst composition described does not consistently give optimum results for all forms of heavy oil and bitumen structures and further that the viscosity and density of the product produced is not uniformly stable over an extended period.

Method used

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  • Production of lower molecular weight hydrocarbons

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

[0056]The pilot scale examples were performed at a Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) pilot facility in the Cold Lake area of Alberta. The equipment used consisted of pumps, a pumper-mixer truck, a pressure tank, controls, instruments, and connecting pipes and hoses. The SAGD facility provided a produced water / oil emulsion input stream with an average split of 20% oil to 80% water to the pumper-mixer essentially configured as shown in FIG. 1 with the water / oil emulsion stream replacing the high molecular weight hydrocarbon source 110.

[0057]Between 9 m3 and 14 m3 of emulsion was processed in each experimental batch. The treatment was done in a continuous fashion. The Basic Solids and Water content (BS&W) of the treated oil stream ran from 1% to 5%. The solids content was less than 0.5%.

[0058]The control samples, marked Pilot Control 1, Laboratory Controls A, B, C and D were prepared to generate comparative data. Pilot Control 1 was performed in the pilot facility and the Laborato...

example 2

[0089]To further demonstrate the invention, pilot testing was performed in Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada. The oil from this region differs in composition from that used in the data reported above, i.e., from the SAGD Facility in Cold Lake.

[0090]The Lloydminster (Lloyd) pilot plant was designed on same basis and process concepts that was used at the Blackrock Cold Lake facility. Difference in the two facilities were that the Blackrock facility had a smaller capacity operation, the water / oil emulsion was already heated to 170° C., coming out of ground from a SAGD production operation, and at the Lloydminster plant the water / oil / CO2 emulsion was heated in a line-heater before was aqueous catalyst composition was blended into the emulsion stream at 95° C. to 115° C. At the Lloydminster facility, oil was trucked off and loaded into heated 1000 bbl storage tanks. The storage tanks were heated to 85° C. The approximate percent composition of the components of the catalyst precursors used i...

example 3

[0095]This examples compares four treated samples. Treated Sample 38 was treated with 2.4% of the Mix A catalyst (based dry wt. % of precursors to net weight of oil) at an emulsion temperature of 104° C. Sample 47 was treated with 1.7 wt % Mix A catalyst at an emulsion temperature of 104° C. In the treatment of both samples 38 and 47, 4.5 scft / min of CO2 was added to the emulsion. The “B” samples comprised the product of the treated Samples 47 and 38 mixed with 13% by weight of condensate. It will be noted from Table 17 below that post-treatment addition of condensate results in a dramatic difference in the end state density and viscosities in Sample 47B and 38B as compared to Samples 47 and 38.

TABLE 17Density and Viscosity of Mix A TreatedOil Samples 38, 38B, and 47, 47BSampleDensityAPIViscosity at 20 C.380.982612.431,47938B (Sample 38 plus 13 wt %0.921721.9239condensate)470.981912.517,94847B (Sample 47 plus 13 wt %0.918922.4193condensate)

[0096]Condensate can also be added initiall...

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Abstract

The present invention relates generally to processes for upgrading (cracking and hydrogenation) of high molecular weight hydrocarbons using a catalytic composition at moderate temperatures, methods for stabilizing the upgraded product, and methods for reducing carbon oxides using a catalytic composition.

Description

PRIORITY DATA[0001]This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 826,035, filed Sep. 18, 2006, which is incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to processes for upgrading (cracking and hydrogenation) of high molecular weight hydrocarbons using a catalytic composition at moderate temperatures, methods for stabilizing the upgraded product, and methods for reducing carbon oxides using a catalytic composition.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The upgrading of viscous high molecular weight hydrocarbons to form lower viscosity, lighter weight molecular hydrocarbon mixtures has long been studied. Traditionally, this involved the cracking and hydrogenating of the hydrocarbon molecules that make-up the high molecular weight viscous material at extremely high temperature and pressure. To improve the efficiency of this process, the inventor of the subject application developed a process for upgrading these vi...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): C10G47/04C10G47/00
CPCC10G47/12C10G47/02
Inventor NEWTON, JEFFREY P.
Owner NEWTON JEFFREY P
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