Process for producing transportation fuels from oil sands-derived crude
AssigneeEpic Oil Extractors, LLC
InventorsRichard H. Schlosberg, Richard D. Jordan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed are processes for producing a transportation fuel from a high quality oil sands-derived crude oil. The oil sands-derived crude oil is provided as a feed source for a catalytic conversion reaction, which produces the product useful as the transportation fuel. The oil sands-derived crude oil has an ASTM D7169 5% distillation point of from 400° F. to 700° F. Transportation fuel is produced from the provided oil sands-derived crude oil by treating the oil sands-derived crude oil through at least one catalytic cracking process and mild hydrotreating process.
Claims8
A process for producing a naphtha stream from a deoxygenated oil sands-derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock, comprising:
- a) obtaining an oil sands-derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock, wherein the oil sands-derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock has an ASTM D7169 5% distillation point of from 400° F. to 700° F., an asphaltenes content of not greater than 10 wt %, a Conradson Carbon Residue (CCR) of not greater than 15 wt %, a nickel plus vanadium content of not greater than 150 wppm, a total acid number (TAN) of from 1-8, and a sulfur content of not greater than 4 wt %, with the oil sands-derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock being obtained from a water-free process that includes steps of:
- (i) pumping oil sands containing heavy bitumen tar through an extractor,
- (ii) selectively extracting a crude oil composition from the heavy bitumen tar on the oil sand material pumped through the extractor by contacting the oil sands material with a solvent in a contacting zone of the extractor, wherein the solvent is comprised of at least 90 wt % of at least one of propane and butane, the contact zone is at a pressure and temperature in which at least 20 wt % of the solvent is in vapor phase during the contacting, and no water is employed in the contacting,
- (iii) removing the selectively extracted crude oil composition and the solvent utilized in the selective extraction step (ii) from the contact zone of the extractor,
- (iv) separating at least a portion of the solvent from the selectively extracted crude oil composition removed from the contact zone of the extractor in step (iii) to produce the oil-sands derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock and solid tailings, and
- (v) placing the solid tailings into the ground without producing tailings ponds;
- b) deoxygenating at least a portion of the oil-sands derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock to reduce the TAN of the oil-sands derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock by mildly hydrotreating the oil-sands derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock in the presence of a hydrotreating catalyst containing at least one Group VIB metal and at least one non-noble Group VIII metal at a H2/HC ratio of from 10-50 std m3/m3;
- and
- c) catalytically cracking at least a portion of the deoxygenated, oil sands-derived, deasphalted crude oil feedstock to produce catalytically cracked product streams, wherein the catalytically cracked product streams comprise the naphtha stream, and the naphtha stream is ≧45 wt % of the total amount of cracked product streams produced.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.