Hydrovisbreaking process for feedstock containing dissolved hydrogen
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorOmer Refa Koseoglu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved hydrovisbreaking process for reducing the viscosity of a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock is provided. A substantially single-phase hydrogen-enriched liquid hydrocarbon feedstock is obtained by mixing the feedstock with hydrogen gas and flashing off the excess hydrogen gas. Comparatively smaller reactor vessels can be used without a gas recycle system, thus reducing the capital cost of hydrovisbreaking process. Further the need for cutter stocks can be minimized or eliminated.
Claims17
A process for reducing the viscosity of a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock into lower molecular weight hydrocarbon compounds in a hydrovisbreaking reaction zone comprising:
- a. mixing the liquid hydrocarbon feedstock and an excess of hydrogen gas in a mixing zone to dissolve a portion of the hydrogen gas in the liquid hydrocarbon feedstock and produce a two-phase mixture of a hydrogen-enriched liquid hydrocarbon feedstock and the remaining excess hydrogen gas;
- b. introducing the mixture of hydrogen gas and the hydrogen-enriched liquid hydrocarbon feedstock into a flashing zone under predetermined conditions to separate the undissolved excess hydrogen gas and optimize the amount of hydrogen dissolved in the hydrogen-enhanced liquid hydrocarbon feedstock, and recovering a single-phase hydrogen-enriched liquid hydrocarbon feedstock;
- c. conveying the single-phase hydrogen-enriched liquid hydrocarbon feedstock under conditions that maximize the amount of dissolved hydrogen in the hydrocarbon feedstock into a hydrovisbreaking reaction zone in the presence of steam to crack the feedstock into relatively smaller molecules;
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- d. recovering converted hydrocarbon products of reduced viscosity from the hydrovisbreaking reaction zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.