Low complexity, high yield conversion of heavy hydrocarbons

摘要

A process for producing pipeline-ready or refinery-ready feedstock from heavy hydrocarbons using a high-performance solvent extraction process with high local solvent-to-process fluid ratios yet maintaining low overall solvent-to-process fluid ratios, by first performing mild thermal cracking on the heavy hydrocarbons and then separating asphaltene-rich fractions from a resulting thermally affected fluid so that the high solvent-to-oil ratio portion of the process acts only on those asphaltene-rich fractions, and producing a dry, solid asphaltene as an end-product.

主权项

1. An optimizable, integrated process for producing a pipeline- or refinery-ready feedstock and a dry thermally-affected asphaltene solid from heavy, high asphaltene feedstock process fluid, said process comprising:
(a) Pre-Heating a process fluid in a heater to a designed temperature; (b) Moving the pre-heated process fluid to a reactor, and optimally converting asphaltenes in the process fluid within the reactor to produce a first stream of thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction(s), and a second stream of vapour; (c) Separating the second stream of vapour into a third stream of non-condensable vapour and a fourth stream of lighter liquid hydrocarbon(s); (d) Deasphalting the first stream's thermally affected asphaltene-rich fraction by precipitating solid asphaltenes particulate as a result of mixing a solvent comprising at least one C4-C8 solvent with the first stream, in a solvent extraction process which operates at temperatures in a range between 40 and 130 Fahrenheit degrees below the critical temperature of the solvent in the process, which produces a fifth stream of heavy deasphalted oil (DAO) and a sixth stream of concentrated asphaltene which is a solid at the extraction process' operating temperature range, the sixth stream as a mixture of precipitated particulate asphaltene solids in a portion of the liquid solvent; (e) Blending the fifth stream's heavy DAO and the fourth stream's liquid hydrocarbon to become the pipeline- or refinery-ready feedstock; and (f) Separating the sixth stream of concentrated asphaltene using a separation unit into a seventh stream of dry, solid asphaltene particulate, and an eighth stream of solvent for re-use in the process.