The invention relates to a process for the manufacture of diesel range hydrocarbons wherein a feed is hydrotreated in a hydrotreating step and isomerised in an isomerisation step, and a feed comprising fresh feed containing more than 5 wt % of free fatty acids and at least one diluting agent is hydrotreated at a reaction temperature of 200-400° C., in a hydrotreating reactor in the presence of catalyst, and the ratio of the diluting agent/fresh feed is 5-30:1.

Processes herein may be used to thermally crack various hydrocarbon feeds, and may eliminate the refinery altogether while making the crude to chemicals process very flexible in terms of crude. In embodiments herein, crude is progressively separated into at least light and heavy fractions. Depending on the quality of the light and heavy fractions, these are routed to one of three upgrading operations, including a fixed bed hydroconversion unit, a fluidized catalytic conversion unit, or a residue hydrocracking unit that may utilize an ebullated bed reactor. Products from the upgrading operations may be used as feed to a steam cracker.

A modular crude oil refinery (MCOR) is designed for smaller scale deployment with a capacity to process in the range of 3,000-4,000 barrels of crude oil per day in a single production unit and with the potential to scale to over 100,000 barrels per day with linked production units. More specifically, a MCOR includes a low temperature, low pressure primary separation reactor, condensing system and recirculation systems operating in a closed loop configuration that enable the production of both heavy and light hydrocarbon products with substantially no emissions. The MCOR has the capability to receive and process crude-oil feedstocks of varying API gravity and be controlled to produce a variety of both heavy and light products including cleaner-burning bunker fuels, jet fuels, diesel fuels, gasoline fuels and asphalt binders.

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 process for producing light olefins comprising thermal cracking. Hydrocracked streams are thermally cracked in a steam cracker to produce light olefins. A pyrolysis gas stream is separated into a light stream and a heavy stream. A light stream is separated into an aromatic naphtha stream and a non-aromatic naphtha stream. The aromatics can be saturated and thermally cracked. The integrated process may be employed to obtain olefin products of high value from a crude stream.

Systems and methods for enhancing the processing of hydrocarbons in a FCC unit by introduction of the coked FCC catalyst from the FCC reactor and a renewable feedstock to the FCC regenerator to facilitate regeneration of the coked FCC catalyst. The renewable feedstock can contain biomass-derived pyrolysis oil. The biomass-derived pyrolysis oil and coke from the coked FCC catalyst are oxidized by oxygen to provide a regenerated catalyst that is recycled to the FCC reactor.

Methods for utilizing a supercritical water unit to convert waste plastics to product through hydrothermal treatment in a supercritical unit are provided. Waste plastic is treated in a pretreatment unit, melting the plastic into a liquid and prepares the plastic for the supercritical water unit. The pretreatment unit can dehalogenate the waste plastic. The molten plastic is introduced into a supercritical water unit with water, which generates a product. A flushing stream of product and steam or water from the supercritical water unit is recycled from the supercritical water unit into the pretreatment unit, preheating and pretreating the waste plastic, and acting as a catalyst in the dechlorination reaction. A purge stream removes the products of the dehalogentation reaction occurring in the melting section.

A method of recycling gaseous hydrocarbons includes flowing a hydrocarbon gas composition from a secondary separator into a compressor unit to form a compressed mixture. The secondary separator includes a crude liquid hydrocarbon input stream from a primary separator. The method includes flowing the compressed mixture into a cooling unit to cool the compressed mixture, to form a cooled composition comprising liquid hydrocarbons. The method includes flowing the liquid hydrocarbons from the cooled composition into the primary separator.

Hydrocracked bottoms fractions are treated to separate HPNA compounds and/or HPNA precursor compounds and produce a reduced-HPNA hydrocracked bottoms fraction effective for recycle. A process for separation of HPNA and/or HPNA precursor compounds from a hydrocracked bottoms fraction of a hydroprocessing reaction effluent comprises contacting the hydrocracked bottoms fraction with heteropoly acid compounds to promote adsorption of HPNAs onto the heteropoly acids and to produce a heteropoly acid treated hydrocracked bottoms fraction, that is recycled within the hydrocracking operation.

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.