# US 2021/0277315 A1 · Upgrading of heavy oil or heavy oil-derived product with ionic liquids

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- Number: US 2021/0277315 A1
- Document ID: US20210277315A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/192,704
- Filed: 2021-03-04
- Published: 2021-09-09
- Earliest claimed: 2020-03-05
- Assignees: Suncor Energy Inc.
- Applicants: Suncor Energy Inc.
- Inventors: Carrie FANAI; Todd PUGSLEY; Dmitry BOGATKOV; Ying QI; Karolina MATUSZEK; Douglas Robert MACFARLANE; Alan Loyd CHAFFEE; Paula BERTON; Robin D. ROGERS; Steven L. BRYANT
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210277315A1

## CPC

- C10G 55/06: including at least one catalytic cracking step
- C10G 1/002: {in combination with oil conversion- or refining processes}
- C10G 1/04: by extraction
- C10G 11/02: characterised by the catalyst used
- C10G 2300/1077: Vacuum residues
- C10G 2300/202: Heteroatoms content, i.e. S, N, O, P
- C10G 2300/302: Viscosity
- 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

Processes for upgrading a heavy oil or heavy oil-derived feedstock in presence of an ionic liquid are described, and can improve the heavy oil or heavy oil-derived properties such as viscosity and composition, and reduced contaminant content, such as a reduced Total Acid Number (TAN) and a reduced heavy metal content. Processes for upgrading heavy oil or heavy oil-derived in presence of an ionic liquid can include a catalytic cracking treatment carried out under catalytic cracking conditions, and/or a non-catalytic treatment, as well as various separation steps to separate the ionic liquid or a diluent if present in the feedstock. The ionic liquids that can be used in the context of the processes described herein include ionic liquids that are feed-miscible or feed-immiscible.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A process for treating a heavy oil or heavy oil-derived feedstock, the process comprising:
contacting an acidic ionic liquid catalyst with the feedstock to obtain an ionic liquid-feedstock mixture;
subjecting the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture to a catalytic cracking treatment, the catalytic cracking treatment comprising heating the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture under catalytic cracking conditions to obtain an ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture; and
separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture to obtain a cracked product and a recovered acidic ionic liquid catalyst.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises bitumen.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream from a distillation unit, a diluent stripping unit or a diluent recovery unit.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream that is obtained from a bitumen froth treatment operation.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream that has not been subjected to fractionation or distillation prior to being contacted with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises a residuum stream from a distillation tower that has been operated to remove light hydrocarbon components.

### Claim 7

(canceled)

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises an overhead distillate product from a distillation tower.

### Claim 9

(canceled)

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, further comprising subjecting the feedstock to a pre-treatment prior to the contacting of the feedstock with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst, wherein the pre-treatment comprises heating the feedstock at a pre-treatment temperature to reduce viscosity of the feedstock.

### Claim 11

(canceled)

### Claim 12

(canceled)

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, further comprising subjecting the feedstock to a pre-treatment prior to the contacting of the feedstock with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst, wherein the pre-treatment comprises adding a diluent comprising at least one of the naphthenic solvent, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and a non-deasphalting organic solvent, to the feedstock.

### Claim 14

(canceled)

### Claim 15

(canceled)

### Claim 16

(canceled)

### Claim 17

(canceled)

### Claim 18 (depends on 13)

The process of claim 13, further comprising recovering the diluent to obtain a recovered diluent, wherein recovering the diluent is performed after the catalytic cracking treatment of the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture under catalytic cracking conditions and before separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture.

### Claim 19 (depends on 13)

The process of claim 13, further comprising recovering the diluent to obtain a recovered diluent, wherein recovering the diluent is performed after separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture.

### Claim 20

(canceled)

### Claim 21

(canceled)

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the recovered acidic ionic liquid catalyst is reused as part of the acidic ionic liquid catalyst that contacts the feedstock.

### Claim 23 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture comprises a liquid-liquid extraction of the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture.

### Claim 24

(canceled)

### Claim 25 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a Lewis acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprising a Lewis acidic anion and a cation selected from the group consisting of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cations, tetraalkylphosphonium cations, tetraalkylammonium cations, trialkylammonium cations and combinations thereof.

### Claim 26

(canceled)

### Claim 27

(canceled)

### Claim 28

(canceled)

### Claim 29

(canceled)

### Claim 30 (depends on 25)

The process of claim 25, wherein the Lewis acidic anion is a chlorometallate anion.

### Claim 31

(canceled)

### Claim 32

(canceled)

### Claim 33

(canceled)

### Claim 34

(canceled)

### Claim 35

(canceled)

### Claim 36 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid.

### Claim 37 (depends on 36)

The process of claim 36, wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a Group(III)halometallate with a mole fraction XMXn above 0.5.

### Claim 38 (depends on 36)

The process of claim 36, wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a Group(III)halometallate with a Gutmman Acceptor Number (AN) above 90.

### Claim 39 (depends on 36)

The process of claim 36, wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a haloaluminate or a halogallate ionic liquid, with a mole fraction XMXn above 0.5.

### Claim 40

(canceled)

### Claim 41

(canceled)

### Claim 42

(canceled)

### Claim 43 (depends on 39)

The process of claim 39, wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a cation selected from the group consisting of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cations, tetraalkylphosphonium cations, tetraalkylammonium cations, trialkylammonium cations, and combinations thereof.

### Claim 44

(canceled)

### Claim 45

(canceled)

### Claim 46

(canceled)

### Claim 47 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst.

### Claim 48 (depends on 47)

The process of claim 47, wherein the Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a protonated imidazolium cation, a protonated C1-nalkyl-substituted imidazolium cation, a protonated tri(C1-nalkyl)ammonium cation, a protonated pyridinium cation, a guanidinium cation, a protonated C1-nalkyl-substituted guanidinium cation, a protonated pyrrolidinium cation, a protonated N—C1-nalkyl-pyrrolidinium cation, a protonated ammonium cation, a protonated tri(C1-nalkyl)ammonium cation, a COOH-bearing imidazolium cation or a SO3H-bearing imidazolium cation, where in the C1-nalkyl group, n is an integer from 2 to 20.

### Claim 49 (depends on 47)

The process of claim 47, wherein the Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a cation selected from the group consisting of
where R can represent a C1-n alkyl group with n from 2 to 20.

### Claim 50

(canceled)

### Claim 51

(canceled)

### Claim 52 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a combination of a Lewis acidic ionic liquid and a Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst.

### Claim 53

(canceled)

### Claim 54

(canceled)

### Claim 55

(canceled)

### Claim 56

(canceled)

### Claim 57 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the heating is performed at a temperature between about 50° C. and about 250° C.

### Claim 58 (depends on 1)

The process of claim 1, wherein the concentration of the acidic ionic liquid catalyst in the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture is between about 5 wt % and about 50 wt %.

### Claim at position 59

59-247. (canceled)