Where thermochemical liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass is conducted using recirculated product oil as solvent, yields can be substantially increased by addition of a short chain alcohol reactant such as ethanol or methanol. A synergistic effect is thereby obtained where liquefaction is improved over using either recycled product oil or alcohol alone. The combination of re-circulated product oil and alcohol reactant permits high conversion at operating pressures considerably lower than typically applied in alcohol solvolysis, typically within the range 30-60 bar. The liquefaction reaction occurs at subcritical pressure where the alcohol acts as a gaseous reactant and not as a solvent.

A system for processing a hydrocarbon feed has a final stage reactor and internal separator with cyclone that forms a substantially gas stream and a substantially non-gas stream. The substantially gas stream is sent directly from the final stage reactor and separator to further downstream processing.

The invention provides a thermal cracking system which comprises a reactor, and a feed module or a solid product discharge module. The feed module transports a feed material from the outside environment to the reactor. While being transported, the feed material is heated by the feed module to become molten and fills up the interior of the feed module, thereby preventing air from entering the reactor. The solid product discharge module transports a solid product from the reactor to the outside environment. One end of the solid product discharge module is connected with the reactor. The other end of the solid product discharge module comprises a first opening interfacing with the outside environment. When the solid product is transported to the outside environment, the opening size of the first opening is selected such that the speed at which the solid product is entering the solid product discharge module form the reactor is equal to or greater than that at which the solid product is leaving the solid product discharge module, through the first opening, and into the outside environment. Benefit of the invention includes a higher production efficiency and enhanced safety for a thermal cracking system at industrial scale.

Method of producing pyrolysis products from mixed plastics along with an associated system for processing mixed plastics. The method includes conducting pyrolysis of a plastic feedstock to produce plastic pyrolysis oil; feeding the plastic pyrolysis oil to a first fractionator to separate the plastic pyrolysis oil into a distillate fraction and a vacuum gas oil fraction; and feeding the distillate fraction to a two step oligomerization operation. The two step oligomerization operation includes feeding the distillate fraction to a first hydrotreating unit to remove di-olefins to produce a first product stream and feeding the first product stream to an olefin oligomerization reactor to react and combine mono-olefins into longer chain olefins. Such system may be integrated with a conventional refinery.

The thermochemical conversion of biomass material to one or more reaction products includes generating thermal energy with at least one heat source, providing a volume of feedstock, providing a volume of supercritical fluid, transferring a portion of the generated thermal energy to the volume of supercritical fluid, transferring at least a portion of the generated thermal energy from the volume of supercritical fluid to the volume of feedstock, and performing a thermal decomposition process on the volume of feedstock with the thermal energy transferred from the volume of supercritical fluid to the volume of the feedstock in order to form at least one reaction product.

The invention provides a method for breaking down long chained hydrocarbons from plastic-containing waste and organic liquids based on crude oil, comprising providing material containing long-chained hydrocarbons; heating a specific volume of the material containing long-chained hydrocarbons to a cracking temperature, at which cracking temperature the chains of hydrocarbons in the material start cracking into shorter chains; and for the specific volume having a temperature above the cracking temperature, exposing the specific volume to heat which is less than or equal to 50° C. above the temperature of the specific volume. The invention also provides an apparatus for carrying out the invention.

The invention relates to a process for the recovery of aliphatic hydrocarbons from a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock stream comprising aliphatic hydrocarbons, heteroatom containing polar components and optionally aromatic hydrocarbons, said process comprising the steps of: a) mixing the liquid hydrocarbon feedstock stream with a solvent resulting in a liquid mixture; b) cooling the liquid mixture obtained in step a) to a temperature in the range of from +5° C. to −30° C. to obtain wax crystals in the mixture; c) separating wax crystals from the cooled liquid mixture obtained in step b) to produce a wax comprising aliphatic hydrocarbons and a dewaxed liquid mixture comprising solvent, heteroatom containing polar components and optionally aromatic hydrocarbons; d) separating solvent from the liquid mixture obtained in step c) and optionally recycling the separated solvent to step a). Further, the present invention relates to a process for the recovery of aliphatic hydrocarbons from plastics, and to a process for steam cracking a hydrocarbon feed.

Processes and systems for making recycle content hydrocarbons, including olefins, using a cracker furnace having enhanced coil design. In some cases, the design of the furnace may prevent coking, so that the run length of the furnace is longer than conventional cracking furnaces. Cracker feed streams to the furnace can include recycle content pyrolysis oil and may be used to form olefin-containing effluent stream having recycle content.

Processes and systems for making recycle content hydrocarbons, including olefins, from recycled waste material. Recycle waste material may be pyrolyzed to form recycle content pyrolysis oil composition (r-pyoil), at least a portion of which may then be cracked to form a recycle content olefin composition (r-olefin). The r-olefin may then be further separated into product streams in a separation zone downstream of the cracker furnace. The presence of recycle content hydrocarbons may facilitate more efficient operation of one or more distillation columns in the separation zone, including the propylene fractionator.

Processes and systems for making recycle content hydrocarbons, including olefins, from recycled waste material. Recycle waste material may be pyrolyzed to form recycle content pyrolysis oil composition (r-pyoil), at least a portion of which may then be cracked to form a recycle content olefin composition (r-olefin). The r-olefin may then be further separated into product streams in a separation zone downstream of the cracker furnace. In some cases, presence of recycle content hydrocarbons may facilitate more efficient operation of one or more distillation columns in the separation zone, including the debutanizer.