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US 2004/0104147 A1Published application
Heavy oil upgrade method and apparatus
OwnerMichael Y. Weninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and reactor for upgrading a hydrocarbon in which an oxygen source and a hydrocarbon source are ignited and the resulting synthetic gas is used to initiate a gas phase heavy oil upgrade reaction. The upgrade reaction is quenched quickly after initiation of the gas phase reaction.
Claims41
A heavy oil upgrading reactor comprising:
- a) a partial oxidation reaction chamber suitable for generating syngas, said syngas containing hydrogen gas;
- b) a heavy oil upgrading reaction chamber including:
- i) a high temperature reaction zone suitable for thermally cracking at least a portion of said heavy oil in the presence of said syngas at a temperature in excess of 1225° F. for less than 10 seconds to form a thermally cracked oil;
- ii) a rapid quench zone suitable for quenching the thermally cracked oil with a heavy oil quench within 10 seconds of the initiation of said thermal cracking of said heavy oil in said high temperature reaction zone;
- iii) a stabilization zone suitable for providing a residence time for said thermally cracked oil of from 1 to 60 minutes at a reduced temperature below 850° F. to form an upgraded oil mixture;
- and
- iv) one or more eduction nozzle(s) suitable for receiving said syngas formed in said partial oxidation reaction chamber, said syngas flowing through said eduction nozzle at a velocity sufficient to educe heavy oil from said heavy oil reaction chamber into said eduction nozzle thereby contacting said syngas with at least a portion of said heavy oil;
- and
- c) a passage suitable for withdrawing at least a portion of said upgraded oil mixture from said heavy oil upgrading reaction chamber.
6 more elements
A heavy oil upgrading process, said process producing 80 wt. % or greater of liquid products, said process comprising:
- a) thermally cracking a feed oil comprising heavy oil at a temperature above 1225° F. for less than 10 seconds in the presence of a hydrogen-containing gas to produce a thermally cracked oil product;
- b) quenching said thermally cracked oil product within 10 seconds of the initiation of said thermal cracking of said feed oil by mixing said thermally cracked oil product with a quench oil to form a quenched oil product;
- and
- c) stabilizing the quenched oil product at a temperature below 850° F. for from 1 to 60 minutes to form a stabilized oil product.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.