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Rapid thermal processing of heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks

a technology of viscous oil and thermal processing, which is applied in thermal non-catalytic cracking, separation processes, evaporation, etc., can solve the problems of diluted crudes or upgraded synthetic crudes significantly different from conventional crude oils, feedstocks that are not suitable for pipeline transportation, and bitumen blends or synthetic crudes are not easily processed in conventional fluid catalytic cracking refineries. to achieve the effect of reducing the viscosity of these oils, enhancing the visco

Inactive Publication Date: 2012-11-08
IVANHOE HTL GASOLINEEUM
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  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The present invention relates to the rapid thermal processing of viscous oil feedstocks. More specifically, this invention relates to the use of pyrolysis in order to upgrade and reduce the viscosity of these oils.
[0019](vi) collecting a gaseous and liquid product from the product stream, wherein the liquid product exhibits an increased API gravity, a reduced pour point, reduced viscosity and a reduced level of contaminants over that of said feedstock.
[0062]The present invention addresses the need within the art for a rapid upgrading process of a heavy oil or bitumen feedstock involving a partial chemical upgrade or mild cracking of the feedstock. This product may, if desired, be transportable for further processing and upgrading. The process as described herein also reduces the levels of contaminants within feedstocks, thereby mitigating contamination of catalytic contact materials with components present in heavy oil or bitumen feedstocks.

Problems solved by technology

However, diluted crudes or upgraded synthetic crudes are significantly different from conventional crude oils.
As a result, bitumen blends or synthetic crudes are not easily processed in conventional fluid catalytic cracking refineries.
Such feedstocks are not suitable for transportable by pipeline, or upgrading due to the sand, water and corrosive properties of the feedstock.
However, these manipulations are expensive and time consuming.
However, many compounds present within the crude feedstocks interfere with these process by depositing on the contact material itself.
These feedstock contaminants include metals such as vanadium and nickel, coke precursors such as Conradson carbon and asphaltenes, and sulfur, and the deposit of these materials results in the requirement for extensive regeneration of the contact material.
None of these approaches disclose the upgrading of feedstock within this pretreatment (i.e. metals and coke removal) process.
Other processes for the thermal treatment of feedstocks involve hydrogen addition (hydrotreating) which results in some chemical change in the feedstock.
However, the use of short residence time reactors to produce a transportable feedstock is not disclosed.

Method used

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  • Rapid thermal processing of heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks
  • Rapid thermal processing of heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks
  • Rapid thermal processing of heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Heavy Oil (Single Stage)

[0159]Pyrolytic processing of Saskatchewan Heavy Oil and Athabasca Bitumen (see Table 1) were carried out over a range of temperatures using a pyrolysis reactor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,340.

TABLE 1Characteristics of heavy oil and bitumen feedstocksCompoundHeavy Oil1Bitumen2Carbon (wt %)84.2783.31Hydrogen (wt %)10.5110.31Nitrogen (wt %)Sulphur (st %)3.64.8Ash (wt %)0.020.02Vanadium (ppm)127204Nickel (ppm)nd82Water content (wt %)0.80.19Gravity API°11.08.6Viscosity @ 40° C. (cSt)634330380Viscosity @ 60° C. (cSt)892.81268.0Viscosity @ 80° C. (cSt)243.4593.0Aromaticity (C13 NMR)0.310.351Saskatchewan Heavy Oil2Athabasca Bitumen (neat)

[0160]Briefly the conditions of processing include a reactor temperature from about 500° to about 620° C. Loading ratios for particulate heat carrier (silica sand) to feedstock of from about 20:1 to about 30:1 and residence times from about 0.35 to about 0.7 sec. These conditions are outlined in more detail below (Table 2).

T...

example 2

Bitumen (Single Stage)

[0168]Several runs using Athabaska Bitumen were conducted using the pyrolysis reactor described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,340. The conditions of processing included a reactor temperature from 520° to about 590° C. Loading ratios for particulate heat carrier to feedstock of from about 20:1 to about 30:1, and residence times from about 0.35 to about 1.2 sec. These conditions, and the resulting liquid products are outlined in more detail below (Table 7).

TABLE 7Single Stage Processing with Undiluted Athabasca BitumenViscosityMetalsCrack@ 40° C.Yield wtDensity @VMetals NiTemp(cSt)%15° C.(ppm)*(ppm)**API519° C.20581.0ndndnd13.0525° C.20174.40.979882412.9528° C.27882.7ndndnd12.6545° C.15177.40.987742711.8590° C.25.674.60.983ridnd12.4*feedstock V 209 ppm**feedstock Ni 86 ppm

[0169]These results indicates that undiluted bitumen may be processed according to the method of this invention to produce a liquid product with reduced viscosity from greater than 1300 cSt (@ 40° C.) ...

example 3

Composite / Recycle of Feedstock

[0172]The pyrolysis reactor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,340 may be configured so that the recovery condensers direct the liquid products into the feed line to the reactor (see FIGS. 3 and 4).

[0173]The conditions of processing included a reactor temperature ranging from about 530° to about 590° C. Loading ratios for particulate heat carrier to feedstock for the initial and recycle run of about 30:1, and residence times from about 0.35 to about 0.7 sec were used. These conditions are outlined in more detail below (Table 10). Following pyrolysis of the feedstock, the lighter fraction was removed and collected using a hot condenser placed before the primary condenser (see FIG. 4), while the heavier fraction of the liquid product was recycled back to the reactor for further processing (also see FIG. 3). In this arrangement, the recycle stream (260) comprising heavy fractions was mixed with new feedstock (270) resulting in a composite feedstock (240) ...

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Abstract

The present invention is directed to the upgrading of heavy hydrocarbon feedstock that utilizes a short residence pyrolytic reactor operating under conditions that cracks and chemically upgrades the feedstock. The method for upgrading a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock comprises introducing a particulate heat carrier into an upflow reactor, introducing the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock into the upflow reactor at a location above that of the particulate heat carrier so that a loading ratio of the particulate heat carrier to feedstock is from about 15:1 to about 200:1, allowing the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock to interact with the heat carrier with a residence time of less than about 1 second, to produce a product stream, separating the product stream from the particulate heat carrier, regenerating the particulate heat carrier, and collecting a gaseous and liquid product from the product stream.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13 / 338,144 filed Dec. 27, 2011 (pending), which claims benefit to U.S. Pat. No. 8,105,482 issued on Jan. 31, 2012, which claims benefit to International Application PCT / CA00 / 00369, filed on Apr. 7, 2000, published in English as No. WO 00 / 61705 on Oct. 19, 2000, which claims benefit to, as a continuation-in-part of, U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 287,958 filed Apr. 7, 1999, now abandoned.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to the rapid thermal processing of viscous oil feedstocks. More specifically, this invention relates to the use of pyrolysis in order to upgrade and reduce the viscosity of these oils.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Heavy oil and bitumen resources are supplementing the decline in the production of conventional light and medium crude oil, and production form these resources is expected to dramatically increase. Pipeline expansion is expected to...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): C10G9/00C10G31/06
CPCC10B55/04C10G9/32C10G31/06C10G2300/308C10G2300/208C10G2300/302C10G2300/304C10G2300/201
Inventor FREEL, BARRYGRAHAM, ROBERT G.
Owner IVANHOE HTL GASOLINEEUM
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