Finding new economic means of upgrading residuals is becoming increasingly important. In this work, the upgrading of Arabian Light vacuum residue under asphaltene stability limit by steam catalytic cracking using unsupported ultra-dispersed (UD) alkali and a non-noble transition metals catalyst is investigated in a continuous open tubular reactor pilot plant. The experiments are conducted with K/Ni UD catalyst under 260 psig at process temperatures of 430À445 °C and LHSV of 5À10.5 h À1 . Experimental results showed a relative increase in the residual oil conversion of 13% by Aquaprocessing at the minimum asphaltene stability limit when compared to conventional thermal cracking. With the use of O 18 labeled water, it is confirmed that the UD catalyst during reaction is capable of dissociating water into hydrogen and oxygen radicals at near visbreaking conditions.

Aquaprocessing (AQP) is a novel method that offers higher conversion level under asphaltenes stability limit. It is a process of steam catalytic cracking using unsupported ultradispersed catalyst. Following a 2011 published work by Fathi and Pereira on upgrading a paraffinic residuum from Arab Light Vacuum Residue (ALVR) by AQP, this work investigates a proposed lumped kinetic model for the upgrading of ALVR via AQP for the first time. The model is evaluated based on experimental results conducted in a continuous upflow open tubular pilot-plant reactor under short-space times and under conditions distant from coke formation. The proposed model is based on five cascaded lumps generated at and below the asphaltenes stability limit: 540 °C+ ALVR, VGO (455−540 °C), distillates (204−455 °C), naphtha (IBP−204 °C), and gases. The model compositions are found close to the experimental values with mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs) of <5.5%.