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US 9,315,733 B2Granted
Asphalt production from solvent deasphalting bottoms
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsOmer Refa Koseoglu, Salman Al-Khaldi, Adnan Al-Hajji, Ali Al-Hamadh
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Abstract
A cost-effective solution is provided for eliminating refinery process waste, including spent catalytic and non-catalytic adsorbent materials, as well as adsorbate process reject materials derived from desorption, while minimizing conventional waste handling demands. An asphalt composition includes asphalt and spent adsorbent material from a solvent deasphalting unit. The asphalt can comprise asphaltic material obtained from a solvent deasphalting unit, and spent adsorbent material in the asphalt composition was previously utilized in the solvent deasphalting unit. The asphalt composition can also include process reject materials.
Claims5
A solvent deasphalting process comprising:
- a. introducing a residual oil feedstock containing asphaltenes, a paraffinic solvent and a solid porous adsorbent material into a mixing vessel and maintaining the components in the mixing vessel for a time sufficient so that carbonaceous materials and contaminant compounds including sulfur- and nitrogen-containing polynuclear aromatic molecules are adsorbed on the adsorbent material and within the pores of the adsorbent material;
- b. separating a solid phase comprising asphaltenes and adsorbent material from the oil/solvent mixture;
- c. passing at least a portion of the asphaltene/adsorbent mixture to a filtration vessel with a solvent to desorb at least a portion of the adsorbed compounds, and separating and passing the solid asphalt phase to an asphalt pool;
- d. recovering solid adsorbent material having carbonaceous materials and contaminant compounds including sulfur- and nitrogen-containing polynuclear aromatic molecules deposited within its pores from the filtration vessel and passing said solid adsorbent material to the asphalt pool, wherein no more than about 50% of the original pore volume of the adsorbent material is blocked by carbonaceous materials and contaminant compounds;
- e. recovering the solvent stream, which includes process reject materials comprising bituminous materials and heavy polynuclear aromatic compounds, from the filtration vessel and passing said solvent stream to a fractionator to separate the process reject materials from the solvent;
- and
- f. recovering said process reject materials from the fractionator and passing the process reject materials to the asphalt pool.
4 more elements
A solvent deasphalting process comprising:
- a. introducing a residual feedstock containing asphaltenes into a mixing vessel with a paraffinic solvent and a solid adsorbent material selected from the group consisting of attapulgus clay, alumina, silica, activated carbon, zeolite catalyst materials and combinations thereof;
- b. mixing the solid asphaltenes formed in the paraffinic solvent phase with the adsorbent material for a time sufficient to adsorb sulfur- and nitrogen-containing polynuclear aromatic molecules on the adsorbent material;
- c. separating the solid phase comprising asphaltenes and adsorbent material as an asphalt/adsorbent material mixture from a remaining oil/solvent mixture;
- d. passing the oil/solvent mixture to a separation vessel to separate the deasphalted oil and paraffinic solvent and recovering the solvent for recycling to the mixing vessel;
- e. passing the asphalt/adsorbent material mixture to a filtration vessel with an aromatic or polar solvent to desorb at least a portion of the adsorbed compounds;
- f. recovering and passing a solid asphalt phase to an asphalt pool;
- g. recovering spent solid adsorbent material having carbonaceous materials and contaminant compounds including sulfur- and nitrogen-containing polynuclear aromatic molecules deposited within its pores from the filtration vessel and passing said spent solid adsorbent material to the asphalt pool, wherein no more than about 50% of the original pore volume of the adsorbent material is blocked by carbonaceous materials and contaminant compounds;
- h. recovering the solvent stream, which includes process reject materials comprising bituminous materials and heavy polynuclear aromatic compounds, from the filtration vessel and passing said solvent stream to a fractionator to separate the process reject materials from the solvent;
- and
- i. recovering said process reject materials from the fractionator and passing the process reject materials to the asphalt pool.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.