For the shipping industry, these fuels provide solutions to long outstanding technical problems that heretofore hindered supply of low sulfur marine fuels in quantities needed to meet worldwide sulfur reduction goals. Marine shipping use of high sulfur bunker oils is reported as largest source of world-wide transportation SOx emissions. When ships on the open seas burn cheap low grade heavy bunker oils high in sulfur, nitrogen and metals, the SOx, NOx, and metal oxides go to the environment. This invention converts essentially all of each barrel of crude feed to a single ultraclean fuel versus conventional refining where crude feed is cut into many pieces, and each piece is sent down a separate market path meeting various different product specifications. When in port, ships can use these fuels to generate and sell electricity to land based electrical grids to offset fuel cost in an environment-friendly manner.

For the shipping industry, these fuels provide solutions to long outstanding technical problems that heretofore hindered supply of low sulfur marine fuels in quantities needed to meet worldwide sulfur reduction goals. Marine shipping use of high sulfur bunker oils is reported as largest source of world-wide transportation SOx emissions. When ships on the open seas burn cheap low grade heavy bunker oils high in sulfur, nitrogen and metals, the SOx, NOx, and metal oxides go to the environment. This invention converts essentially all of each barrel of crude feed to a single ultraclean fuel versus conventional refining where crude feed is cut into many pieces, and each piece is sent down a separate market path meeting various different product specifications. When in port, ships can use these fuels to generate and sell electricity to land based electrical grids to offset fuel cost in an environment-friendly manner.

An ebullated bed hydroprocessing system is upgraded using a dual catalyst system that includes a heterogeneous catalyst and dispersed metal sulfide particles, which permits recycling of vacuum bottoms without recycle buildup of asphaltenes. The dual catalyst system more effectively converts asphaltenes in the ebullated bed reactor and increases asphaltene conversion by an amount that at least offsets higher asphaltene concentration resulting from recycling of vacuum bottoms. In this way, there is no recycle buildup of asphaltenes in upgraded ebullated bed reactor notwithstanding recycling of vacuum bottoms. In addition, residual dispersed metal sulfide catalyst particles in the vacuum bottoms can maintain or increase the concentration of the dispersed metal sulfide catalyst in the ebullated bed reactor.

A process for recovering ethylene from an FCC absorber off-gas stream comprising ethylene, ethane and heavier hydrocarbons and light gases involves removing hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur species, carbon monoxide/dioxide, methane and other impurities from the off-gas. An absorption zone is upstream of an acetylene selective hydrotreating reactor to remove acid gases. An adsorption zone is downstream of the selective hydrotreating reactor to remove impurities that can impair ethylene recovery.

Provided herein is a process for separating alkane isomers from a hydrocarbon mixture in an integrated refining unit, comprising: passing the hydrocarbon mixture through a normal alkane-selective membrane in a single stage to produce a normal alkane-enriched stream and a membrane reject stream; and feeding the normal alkane-enriched stream to a steam cracker to produce olefins; wherein the hydrocarbon mixture comprises n-paraffins and at least two of isoparaffins, cycloparaffins, and aromatics.

The present application generally relates to the introduction of a renewable fuel oil as a feedstock into refinery systems or field upgrading equipment. For example, the present application is directed to methods of introducing a liquid thermally produced from biomass into a petroleum conversion unit; for example, a refinery fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), a coker, a field upgrader system, a hydrocracker, and/or hydrotreating unit; for co-processing with petroleum fractions, petroleum fraction reactants, and/or petroleum fraction feedstocks and the products, e.g., fuels, and uses and value of the products resulting therefrom.

Systems and methods are provided for performing a partial trip for an ethane steam cracker while reducing or minimizing ethane consumption in a ground flare system during the partial trip. In particular, a trip system is provided that reduces the firing on an ethylene furnace (such as a reduction into a range of 10% to 40% of normal firing) while also providing a reduced flow of feed to the furnace with dilution steam at a steam to hydrocarbon ratio similar to a ratio that is suitable during normal operation. The trip system can be actuated, for example, when the loss of circulating quench water to the water quench tower is detected.

A process for producing transport fuel blendstocks comprises providing a first feedstock comprising butane and propane and a second feedstock comprising benzene and dehydrogenating the first feedstock in a first reactor to produce a C4 product comprising butane and butene and a C3 product comprising propane and propylene. The process also comprises oligomerizing the C4 product in a second reactor to produce a first transport fuel blendstock and alkylating the C3 product with the second feedstock in a third reactor to produce a second transport fuel blendstock.

The invention relates to an enclosure (10) of a fluid catalytic cracking unit in which an inner space is defined by a side wall (12) having a longitudinal axis extending substantially in the direction of gravity, said enclosure being provided with a plurality of mechanical separation cyclones (14, 16) located inside the inner space. The enclosure (10) comprises a supporting device (20) attached only to the cyclones (14, 16) by: an annular peripheral support element (202) extending along the side wall (12) in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (X), separated from the side wall by a predetermined clearance; and a plurality of beams (206, 208) extending in the same plane as the peripheral support element (202), the beams being rigidly connected to the peripheral support element and to at least one mechanical separation cyclone by one end or by an attachment part distant from the ends thereof.

A coke catching apparatus for use in hydrocarbon cracking to assist in the removal of coke and the prevention of coke build up in high coking hydrocarbon processing units. The apparatus includes a grid device for preventing large pieces of coke from entering the outlet of the process refining equipment while allowing small pieces of coke to pass through and be disposed of. The coke catching apparatus can be easily disassembled to be removed from the refining process equipment and cleaned.