Catalytic Aquaprocessing of Arab Light Vacuum Residue via Short Space Times

Abstract

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.

Bench-Top Thermal and Steam Catalytic Cracking of Athabasca Residual Fractions: Attainable Upgrading Levels Correlated with Fraction Properties

“…The successful CSC upgrading using the K−Ni catalyst initially applied to Maracaibo Lake's heavy oils 9−12 was further successfully demonstrated with catalysts from the second family developed by this research group, applied to vacuum gas oil, 15 deasphalted oil (DAO), 16,17 Canadian bitumen, 18 and also to the more refractory Arab VR. 19 Some of these previous works further investigated the use of 18 O-labeled water, 17,19 thus unequivocally demonstrating the participation of water as one of the reagents in the occurring CSC reactions. Higher conversions than those obtained in TC were achieved, noticing that CSC products stability as determined by the determination of P-value were higher than those measured for the TC products.…”

“…Higher conversions than those obtained in TC were achieved, noticing that CSC products stability as determined by the determination of P-value were higher than those measured for the TC products. 19 Better catalytic formulations containing NiCe in addition to other metals (third catalysts family developed within this research group) were studied for CSC carried out at much lower temperatures, i.e., instead of working within the 430− 445 °C range, successful results were obtained in the 350−380 °C. 20,21 The removal of Dispersed particles after processing was avoided by using fixed bed reactors, with the active phases dispersed on solid supports for this catalyst family.…”

Heavy Oil Upgrading in the Presence of Water

“…В настоящее время в литературе известно два подхода, разработанных для КПК ТНС в сларри-режиме: процесс с использованием железооксидного грубодисперсного катализатора Разработчики данной технологии не приводят результаты исследований конкретного со-стояния K-и Ni-содержащих компонент данной каталитической системы в условиях процесса, предполагая, что они восстанавливаются до металлов [109,113] либо превращаются в оксиды никеля и калия [110]. Из [97] известно, что соль -предшественник катализатора на основе Ni …”

Amelioration of catalytic activity in steam catalytic cracking of vacuum residue with ZrO2-impregnated macro–mesoporous red mud

“…Consequently, steam catalytic cracking, which uses steam as an inexpensive hydrogen source, has attracted attention as an alternative and economical method to increase the conversion of residua to lighter products when compared to thermal cracking. Several studies involving the use of water at sub or supercritical conditions to transform heavy oils into lighter and more valuable products have been published [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Furthermore, numerous catalysts have been investigated for steam catalytic cracking, including natural zeolites [7], alkali and transition compounds [8][9][10][11], and zirconiasupported iron oxide catalysts [12][13][14][15][16].…”