This invention relates to the conversion or hydrotreatment of petroleum or coal derived liquids in a novel ebullated-bed reactor system. The novel processing scheme results in a much simpler and less costly (investment and annual operating) ebullated-bed reaction system through the elimination of the high pressure, high temperature separator, hydrogen purification plant, and recycle gas compressor as well as a smaller hydrogen make-up compressor all resulting in substantial operational and construction efficiency.

The present invention is directed to modifications of bitumen and heavy oil upgrading and refining processes to synthesize synthetic crude oil and other valuable synthesized hydrocarbon products in an efficient manner along with the production of commercially valuable co-products from by-products formed by the upgrading process.

The present invention provides a method for processing low-grade heavy oil, comprising: providing a riser-bed reactor; preheating the low-grade heavy oil and injecting it into the riser reactor to react with solid catalyst particles at the temperature of 550-610° C.; oil-gas, after reacting with the solid catalyst particles in the riser reactor, being introduced into the fluidized bed reactor to continue to react at temperature of 440-520° C. and weight hourly space velocity of 0.5-5 h.sup.−1; and the oil-gas, after reacting in the fluidized bed reactor, being separated from coked solid catalyst particles carried therein, and the separated oil-gas being introduced into a fractionation system. The method can effectively remove carbon residues, heavy metals, asphaltenes and other impurities from the low-grade heavy oil, and obtain high liquid product yield in a simple process.

A process for producing light olefins and aromatics, which comprises reacting a feedstock by contacting with a catalytic cracking catalyst in at least two reaction zones, wherein the reaction temperature of at least one reaction zone among the reaction zones downstream of the first reaction zone is higher than that of the first reaction zone and its weight hourly space velocity is lower than that of the first reaction zone, separating the spent catalyst from the reaction product vapor, regenerating the separated spent catalyst and returning the regenerated catalyst to the reactor, and separating the reaction product vapor to obtain the desired products, light olefins and aromatics. This process produces maximum light olefins such as propylene, ethylene, etc from heavy feedstocks, wherein the yield of propylene exceeds 20% by weight, and produces aromatics such as toluene, xylene, etc at the same time.

A process for the hydroprocessing of heavy oils and/or oil residues, the process comprising the steps of contacting a non-metallised carbonaceous material with an acid to form a non-metallised carbonaceous additive; and contacting the heavy oils and/or oil residues with the non-metallised carbonaceous additive in the presence of a hydrogen-containing gas at a temperature of from 250° C. to 600° C.

A heavy petroleum oil feed is upgraded by having its amenability to cracking improved by subjecting the oil to selective partial oxidation with a catalytic oxidation system to partially oxidize aromatic ring systems in the heavy oil. The partially oxidized oil can then be cracked in the conventional manner but at lower severities to lower molecular weight cracking products. The cracking following the partial oxidation step may be thermal in nature as by thermal cracking, delayed, contact or fluid coking or fluid catalytic cracking or hydrogenative as in hydrocracking.

In a broad aspect the present disclosure relates to a process plant and a process for upgrading a hydrocarbon mixture, withdrawn as a direct stream from a crude distillation unit and an initial boiling point below 200° C., and a fraction of at least 5% boiling above 500° C., 550° C. or 650° C. comprising the steps of a. directing said hydrocarbon mixture to a vacuum flasher unit, b. withdrawing a heavy hydrocarbon fraction from said vacuum flasher unit, c. withdrawing a light hydrocarbon mixture for hydrocracking from said vacuum flasher unit, d. directing said light hydrocarbon mixture for hydrocracking and a stream rich in hydrogen to con-tact a material catalytically active in hydrocracking, e. withdrawing a hydrocracked stream of hydrocarbon from said hydrocracker. with the associated benefit of limiting the amount of asphaltenes, metals and other heavy components contacting said material catalytically active in hydrocracking.

An integrated upgrading process for upgrading a heavy oil, the process comprising the steps of introducing a heavy oil to a visbreaker unit; processing the heavy oil in the visbreaker unit to produce a visbreaker product stream; feeding the visbreaker product stream to a fractionator; separating the visbreaker product stream in the fractionator to produce a bottoms stream, a gas oil stream, a naphtha stream, and a gas product stream; feeding the bottoms stream to a supercritical water unit; and processing the bottoms stream in the supercritical water unit to produce an upgraded bottoms stream.

Refinery processes, systems, and compositions for making an aromatic blending component for fuel oil, and a fuel oil blend using the same. Valuable hydrocarbons like kerosene can be reduced or eliminated from fuel oil blends by adding certain aromatic blending components derived from the aromatic bottoms stream of an aromatic recovery complex. The aromatic blending component can be used in lieu of more costly hydrocarbon streams to decrease the overall viscosity of the fuel oil blend without adding sulfur.

Embodiments of the disclosure produce a method and system for deasphalting a hydrocarbon feed. The hydrocarbon feed and a first solvent is combined using a Taylor-Couette mixer to form a mixed stream. The mixed stream and a second solvent are introduced to an extractor to produce a first deasphalted oil stream and a pitch stream. The first deasphalted oil stream is introduced to a solvent recovery unit to recover the first solvent and the second solvent via a recovered solvent stream and to produce a second deasphalted oil stream.