| 摘要 |
A process to upgrade heavy oil and convert the heavy oil into lower boiling hydrocarbon products is provided. The process employs a catalyst slurry comprising catalyst particles with an average particle size ranging from 1 to 20 microns. In the upgrade process, spent slurry catalyst in heavy oil is generated as an effluent stream, which is subsequently recovered/separated from the heavy oil via membrane filtration. In one embodiment, a sufficient amount of solvent is first added to the stream comprising the spent slurry catalyst in heavy oil to break up the colloidal suspension of the heavy oil, reduce the effective viscosity and density of the continuous liquid phase and hence enhance the separation into two phases with the bottom phase comprising catalyst particles in solvent and with a reduced heavy oil concentration. Valuable metals can be recovered from catalyst particles for subsequent re-use in a catalyst synthesis unit, generating a fresh slurry catalyst.
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