# US 2017/0282148 A1 · Treatment of Heavy Crude Oil and Diluent

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- Number: US 2017/0282148 A1
- Document ID: US20170282148A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/627,561
- Filed: 2017-06-20
- Published: 2017-10-05
- Earliest claimed: 2014-03-18
- Assignees: Quanta Associates, L.P.
- Applicants: Quanta Associates, L.P.
- Inventors: Bengt Arne Jarlsjo; Thomas Gieskes; Joe Travis Moore; Lance Dawson McCarver
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20170282148A1

## CPC

- B01J 19/24: Stationary reactors without moving elements inside (B01J19/08, B01J19/26 take precedence; with stationary particles B01J8/02)
- B01J 8/02: with stationary particles, e.g. in fixed beds
- C10G 1/002: {in combination with oil conversion- or refining processes}
- C10G 1/02: by distillation
- C10G 45/02: to eliminate hetero atoms without changing the skeleton of the hydrocarbon involved and without cracking into lower boiling hydrocarbons; Hydrofinishing
- B01J 2208/00176: outside the reactor
- B01J 2219/00006: Large-scale industrial plants
- B01J 2219/00038: Processes in parallel
- B01J 2219/0004: Processes in series
- B01J 2219/00103: in a heat exchanger separate from the reactor
- B01J 2219/00159: controlling multiple zones along the direction of flow, e.g. pre-heating and after-cooling
- B01J 2219/00182: controlling the level of reactants in the reactor vessel
- C10G 2300/202: Heteroatoms content, i.e. S, N, O, P
- B01J: CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
- C10G: CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION (cracking to hydrogen or synthesis gas C01B; cracking or pyrolysis of hydrocarbon gases to individual hydrocarbons or mixtures thereof of definite or specified constitution C07C; cracking to cokes C10B); RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES

## Abstract

An integrated process simultaneously removes the diluent and reduces the TAN, resulting in cost savings from the diluent recovery and increasing the value of the produced heavy crude stream by removing the acids and other contaminants, while reducing the overall energy requirements when compared to performing the two processes separately.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus comprising:
one or more heaters to heat a blend of bituminous crude oil and diluent to degradation of naphthenic acids in the crude oil;
one or more reactors to provide sufficient residence time at elevated temperatures for the decomposition reactions to reduce the acid concentrations to reduce total acid number by at least 75% and to simultaneously remove the diluent; and
a distillation column to remove diluent by distillation.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including:
multiple reactors, arranged such that:
each reactor's vapor flow is individually controlled to maintain a constant rate over the required residence time; and
both liquid and vapor flow concurrently upwards in the reactor so that as more degradation products are formed, vapor flow is also increasing, while vapor and liquid are separated at the top of each reactor; and
heaters between the reactors to compensate for the heat required for the vaporization of the light hydrocarbons.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including a vertical concurrent upward flow path for both the bituminous oil blend and the evaporated diluents and a flow path for hydrocarbon vapor stream through the liquid to remove decomposition products and drive the reaction to completion.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including a condenser to recover the light hydrocarbons from the vented vapors by cooling and condensing said vapors while venting the non-condensable contaminants and residual hydrocarbon vapors to a vapor destruction device.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including said distillation column to recover from said light hydrocarbons the fractions in the distillate boiling range, that were stripped with the lighter diluents out of the heavy crude oil.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including a device to recover heat from treated liquid and vapor streams and to use that heat to preheat the blend.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 including a cogeneration unit to generate electricity and heat from suitable fuel and contaminant vapors produced in the course of recovering the diluent.

### Claim 8 (depends on 2)

The apparatus of claim 2 including a hydrogen supply to the reactors to convert sulfur compounds to hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The apparatus of claim 8 including a device to remove the H2S by converting H2S to H2O and elemental sulfur.