# US 9,751,072 B2 · Treatment of heavy crude oil and diluent

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- Number: US 9,751,072 B2
- Document ID: US9751072B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/659,938
- Filed: 2015-03-17
- Published: 2015-09-24
- Granted: 2017-09-05
- 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/US9751072B2

## 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

A method for simultaneously recovering diluent from heavy bituminous crude oil and reducing the acidity comprising:
heating a blend of bituminous crude oil and diluent to degradation of naphthenic acids in the crude oil;
providing 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
removing diluent by distillation.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 whereby the residence time required for completion of the thermal decomposition reaction of the acids is provided in multiple reactors in series or parallel, arranged such that:
each reactor's vapor flow is individually controlled to maintain a constant rate over the required residence time;
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
reheating between the reactors to compensate for the heat required for the vaporization of the light hydrocarbons.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 including using vertical concurrent upward flow for both the bituminous oil blend and the evaporated diluents, and flowing hydrocarbon vapor stream through the liquid, removing decomposition products and driving the reaction to completion.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 including recovering 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 method of claim 1 including recovering through distillation 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 method of claim 1 including removing substantially all of the diluent.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 including recovering heat from treated liquid and vapor streams and using that heat to preheat the blend.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 including generating electricity and heat from suitable fuel and contaminant vapors produced in the course of recovering the diluent.

### Claim 9 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2 including supplying hydrogen to the reactors to convert sulfur compounds to hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9 including removing the H2S by converting H2S to H2O and elemental sulfur.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 including treating petroleum products that require diluent addition for pipeline transport.