Process and apparatus for recovering hydrocracked soft pitch
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorsPing Sun, Grant H. Yokomizo, Bart Dziabala
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Settling unconverted pitch from a SHC reactor effluent before fractionation improves efficiency of fractionation of slurry hydrocracked products. The recycle of soft pitch to the SHC reactor results in improved reactor operation by avoiding the recycle of lighter products which vaporize in the reactor to occupy reactor space and the recycle of hard pitch which will not convert. The settling step facilitated by mixing with a solvent can achieve a separation between soft pitch and hard pitch not achievable in a fractionation column.
Claims20
A process for slurry hydrocracking comprising:
- slurry hydrocracking a hydrocarbon feed stream in a slurry hydrocracking reactor to provide a hydrocracked effluent stream;
- separating a hydrocracked stream, taken from said hydrocracked effluent stream, to provide a heavy stream;
- mixing the heavy stream with a solvent to provide a hydrocracked product stream and a first hard pitch stream;
- and
- fractionating said hydrocracked product stream.
An apparatus for slurry hydrocracking comprising:
- a slurry hydrocracking reactor;
- a separator in downstream communication with said slurry hydrocracking reactor;
- a mixing column in downstream communication with said separator;
- and
- a fractionation column in downstream communication with said mixing column.
A process for slurry hydrocracking comprising:
- slurry hydrocracking a hydrocarbon feed stream in a slurry hydrocracking reactor to provide a hydrocracked effluent stream;
- separating a hydrocracked stream, taken from said hydrocracked effluent stream, to provide a heavy stream;
- recycling a soft pitch stream taken from said heavy stream to said slurry hydrocracking step, said soft pitch stream boiling between about 524° C. and about 704° C.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.