A renewable solvent composition having a high i-paraffin content of at least 91.0 wt.-% and a boiling in a range of from 150 C. to 260 C. is disclosed. The solvent composition can provide a good balance between solvency power and cold properties and is usable in a broad application field.

We disclose a process for purification of hydrocarbons, suitable for a wide range of contexts such as refining bunker fuels to yield low-sulphur fuels, cleaning of waste engine oil (etc) to yield a usable hydrocarbon product, recovery of hydrocarbons from used tyres, recovery of hydrocarbons from thermoplastics etc, as well as the treatment of crude oils, shale oils, and the tailings remaining after fractionation and like processes. The method comprises the steps of heating the hydrocarbon thereby to release a gas phase, contacting the gas with an aqueous persulphate electrolyte within a reaction chamber, and condensing the gas to a liquid or a liquid/gas mixture and removing its aqueous component. It also comprises subjecting the reaction product to an electrical field generated by at least two opposing electrode plates between which the reaction product flows; this electrolytic step regenerates the persulphate electrolyte which can be recirculated within the process. The process is ideally applied in an environment at lower than atmospheric pressure, such as less than 1500 Pa. A wide range of hydrocarbons can be treated in this way. Used hydrocarbons such as engine oils and sulphur-contaminated fuels are prime examples, but there are a wide range of others such as hydrocarbons derived from the pyrolysis of a material having a hydrocarbon content. One such example is a mix of used rubber (such as end-of-life tyres) and used oils (such as engine oils, waste marine oils), which can be pyrolysed together to yield a hydrocarbon liquid which can be treated as above, and a residue that provides a useful solid fuel.

The present application provides a one-step refining process of a hydrocarbon feedstock, said process comprising heating said hydrocarbon feedstock with one or more fatty acids or mixtures thereof, at a temperature below 350 C., to obtain a light hydrocarbon product, wherein said light hydrocarbon product obtained in said process contains no heavy hydrocarbons products.

A method for removing sulfur containing contaminants from a thermally cracked waste oil is disclosed. In the present invention, the substantial amount of contaminants containing sulfur is separated into a solvent and further remaining contaminants can be separated via adsorption with bauxite such that an end product oil having better quality may be produced with higher productivity. The solvent can be subject to flash evaporation and then be recycled.

A multi-phase process involves physical and chemical methods to recover the oil bases of used oils. The resulting oil base meets the standards and technical specifications necessary for reuse in the formulation of lube oils, greases and alike. The process includes classifying the used oil according to its physicochemical characteristics in order to optimize the subsequent phases. Next, the used oil is subject to physical pre-treatment to remove the solids of about 20 microns, dehydrate them and extinguish the remains of light hydrocarbons. Afterwards, the used oil undergoes extraction with organic chemical solvents on specific proportions within certain pressure and temperature ranges. The output is an extract composed of the oil base, the solvents and a semi-solid precipitate containing the used oil pollutants. Next, the extract is separated from the precipitate by physical methods. Subsequently, the extract passes through another physical procedure that separates the solvents from the oil base.

Proposed is a process of producing a high-quality lube base oil using a refined oil fraction obtained from waste lubricant as a feedstock. The process includes purifying waste lubricant to obtain a refined oil fraction, pretreating the refined oil fraction, and blending the pretreated refined oil fraction with unconverted oil (UCO), before or after vacuum distillation and catalytic dewaxing of the unconverted oil, or between the vacuum distillation and the catalytic dewaxing of the unconverted oil.

A method for removing sulfur containing contaminants from a thermally cracked waste oil is disclosed. In the present invention, the substantial amount of contaminants containing sulfur is separated into a solvent and further remaining contaminants can be separated via adsorption with bauxite such that an end product oil having better quality may be produced with higher productivity. The solvent can be subject to flash evaporation and then be recycled.

The present disclosure relates to a process to reduce total acid number (TAN) of a heat transfer fluid. The process comprises contacting the heat transfer fluid with an adsorbent composition at a temperature in the range of 50 C. to 350 C. and a pressure in the range of 1 bar to 10 bar to obtain a treated heat transfer fluid having total acid number (TAN) in the range of 0.003 to 0.03 and pH in the range of 6 to 7.5, wherein the adsorbent composition is provided in a fixed bed and the heat transfer fluid is passed through the fixed bed comprising the adsorbent composition at a liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) in the range of 0.5 per hour to 10 per hour.

A methodology for cleaning and upgrading any kind of tires (cars, motorcycles, trucks, etc.), any kind of waste lubricants (internal combustion engines, industrial parts), any kind of oils as well as plant and animal fats by means of removal of the inorganic elements (potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, phosphorus and heavy metals such as Pb, Cu, Cd, Zn, Hg, Mn, etc.) and the simultaneous addition of new such as calcium, magnesium and ammonium, in order to produce a clean and upgraded rubber material, lubricant as well as fat/oil, which can be used as raw material in thermochemical conversion processes such as flash (t<1 sec)/fast pyrolysis.

The present disclosure relates to a process for the hydrodeoxygenation of vegetable oils or animal fats to produce green diesel, which comprises contacting the vegetable oil or animal fat with a Nickel-Molybdenum or Cobalt-Molybdenum catalyst supported on alumina-titania or titania, respectively; in a fixed bed reactor in the presence of hydrogen. The process involves hydrocracking, hydrogenation, decarboxylation, decarbonylation, carried out in a fixed bed reactor at temperature of about 270 C. to about 360 C., pressure of about 40 kg.sub.f/cm.sup.2 to about 60 kg.sub.f/cm.sup.2, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) between about 0.8 h.sup.1 to about 3.0 h.sup.1, and H.sub.2/oil ratio of about 2,700 ft.sup.3/bbl to about 7,000 ft.sup.3/bbl, that allows to obtain a conversion up to 99% and up to 92.7% yield on green diesel.