Fuel oil compositions, and methods for blending such fuel oil compositions, to enhance initial compatibility and longer term stability when such fuel oil compositions are blended to meet IMO 2020 low sulfur fuel oil requirements (ISO 8217). In one or more embodiments, asphaltenic resid base stocks are blended with high aromatic slurry oil to facilitate initial compatibility such that low sulfur cutter stocks, e.g., vacuum gas oil and/or cycle oil, may be further blended therein to cut sulfur content while maintaining longer term stability. These fuel oil compositions are economically advantageous when used as marine low sulfur fuel oils because greater concentrations of high viscosity resids are present in the final blend.

Fuel oil compositions, and methods for blending such fuel oil compositions, to enhance initial compatibility and longer term stability when such fuel oil compositions are blended to meet IMO 2020 low sulfur fuel oil requirements (ISO 8217). In one or more embodiments, asphaltenic resid base stocks are blended with high aromatic slurry oil to facilitate initial compatibility such that low sulfur cutter stocks, e.g., vacuum gas oil and/or cycle oil, may be further blended therein to cut sulfur content while maintaining longer term stability. These fuel oil compositions are economically advantageous when used as marine low sulfur fuel oils because greater concentrations of high viscosity resids are present in the final blend.

A multi-stage process for the production of an ISO8217 compliant Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil from ISO 8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil involving a core process under reactive conditions in a Reaction System composed of one or more reaction vessels, wherein one or more of the reaction vessels contains one or more catalysts in the form of a structured catalyst bed and is operated under reactive distillation conditions. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil has a sulfur level has a maximum sulfur content (ISO 14596 or ISO 8754) between the range of 0.05 mass % to 1.0 mass. A process plant for conducting the process for conducting the process is disclosed.

Low sulfur gasoline blend stock is produced by a hydrodesulfurization process including at least two hydrodesulfurization reactors with hydrogen feeds and two finishing reactors arranged where the first polishing reactor converts both thiophenic compounds and mercaptans to hydrogen sulfide and hydrocarbons and the second polishing reactor uses a catalyst that has much less thiophenic conversion activity but is operated at a higher temperature to more substantially reduce the sulfur content of the gasoline present in the form of mercaptans. As the conversion of thiophenes to hydrogen sulfide is correlated to reducing octane number, using a second polishing reactor that has little activity for thiophene conversion also protects the high-octane species in the gasoline thereby minimizing octane loss while reducing total sulfur content to acceptable levels. The sulfur left in the gasoline is biased toward higher thiophene content and away from mercaptan content.

A multi-stage device for reducing the environmental contaminants in an ISO8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil involving a core desulfurizing process and an ionic liquid extraction desulfurizing process as either a pre-treating step or post-treating step to the core process. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil is compliant with ISO 8217 for residual marine fuel oils and has a sulfur level has a maximum sulfur content (ISO 14596 or ISO 8754) between the range of 0.05% wt. to 0.5% wt.

A multi-stage process for the production of an ISO 8217 compliant Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil from ISO 8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil involving a Reaction System composed of one or more reactor vessels selected from a group reactor wherein said one or more reactor vessels contains one or more reaction sections configured to promote the transformation of the Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil to the Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil has a sulfur level has a maximum sulfur content (ISO 14596 or ISO 8754) between the range of 0.05 mass % to 1.0 mass. A process plant for conducting the process for conducting the process is disclosed that can utilize a modular reactor vessel contained within a frame work based on ISO 40 foot or ISO 20 foot container dimensions.

Disclosed are methods for removing acid gas from a feed stream of natural gas including acid gas, methane and ethane. The methods include alternating input of the feed stream between at least two beds of adsorbent particles comprising zeolite SSZ-13 such that the feed stream contacts one of the at least two beds at a given time in an adsorption step and a tail gas stream is simultaneously vented from another of the at least two beds in a desorption step. The contact occurs at a feed pressure of from about 50 to about 1000 psia for a sufficient period of time to preferentially adsorb acid gas from the feed stream. A product gas stream is produced containing no greater than about 2 mol % carbon dioxide and at least about 65 mol % of methane recovered from the feed stream and at least about 25 mol % of ethane recovered from the feed stream. The feed stream is input at a feed end of each bed. The product gas stream is removed from a product end of each bed. The tail gas stream is vented from the feed end of each bed. The methods require lower vacuum power consumption and allow improved hydrocarbon recoveries compared with known methods.

Systems and methods are provided for using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to predict properties of fuel compositions, such as marine fuel oils. It has been discovered that various features of the data plots generated by DSC can be correlated with properties of interest for marine fuel oil compositions. The fuel composition properties that can be predicted based on DSC include, but are not limited to, density; micro carbon residue; pour point; and estimated cetane number (ECN). This can include prediction of ECN for resid-containing fuel compositions. Using DSC to predict ECN can reduce or minimize the number of resid-containing fuel oil samples that require testing using the limited availability equipment required for the IP 541 method.

Fuel compositions that are low sulfur and have adequate combustion quality are disclosed. An example fuel composition that is low sulfur may have the following enumerated properties: a sulfur content of about 0.50% or less by weight of the fuel composition; a calculated carbon aromaticity index of about 870 or less; a density at 15 C. of about 900 kg/m.sup.3 to about 1,010 kg/m.sup.3; a kinematic viscosity at 50 C. of about 100 centistokes to about 700 centistokes; and an estimated cetane number of about 7 or greater.

A process for reducing the environmental contaminants in a ISO 8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil, the process involving: mixing a quantity of the Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil with a quantity of Activating Gas mixture to give a feedstock mixture; contacting the feedstock mixture with one or more catalysts to form a Process Mixture from the feedstock mixture; separating the Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil liquid components of the Process Mixture from the gaseous components and by-product hydrocarbon components of the Process Mixture and, discharging the Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil is compliant with ISO 8217 for residual marine fuel oils and the sulfur and Specific Contaminants have concentration less than 0.5 wt %., wherein the Specific Contaminates are selected from the group consisting of: vanadium, sodium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, zinc, phosphorus, nickel, iron and combinations thereof. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil can be used as or as a blending stock for an ISO 8217 compliant, IMO MARPOL Annex VI (revised) compliant low sulfur or ultralow sulfur heavy marine fuel oil.