Methods are described herein for upgrading ad refining hydrocarbons, and producing at least one petrochemical product, the method including: preparing a reaction mixture by adding at least two of: a quantity of bioethanol, a quantity of hydrocarbon, and a quantity of water to a reactor containment; combining the reaction mixture with a quantity of catalyst in the reactor containment; applying reaction conditions to the reactor containment thereby generating supercritical conditions for the reaction mixture and obtaining a product mixture; and extracting at least one petrochemical product from the product mixture.

A process for catalytic cracking of waste originating from pine processing industry for producing a mixture of chemical compounds, e.g., components for formulation of adhesives, foams, antioxidants, sugars, among others. Optionally, additional steps can be added to the process for processing the obtained mixtures in order to obtain purer fractions with greater commercial interest and value.

Applying electromagnetic energy to a hydrocarbon feed in the presence of at least one of a solvent, a catalyst, an electromagnetic receptor or a hydrogenation agent may result in depolymerization and compositional modification of the hydrocarbon feedstock into at least one of smaller hydrocarbon product fractions or viscosity modification.

Digestion of cellulosic biomass solids may be complicated by release of lignin therefrom. Methods and systems for processing a reaction product containing lignin-derived products, such as phenolics, can comprise hydrotreating the reaction product to convert the lignin-derived products to desired higher molecular weight compounds. The methods and systems can further include separating the higher molecular weight compounds from unconverted products, such as unconverted phenolics, and recycling the unconverted phenolics for use as at least a portion of the digestion solvent and for further conversion to desired higher molecular weight compounds with additional hydrotreatment. The methods and systems can further include a further hydrotreatment step configured for additional lignin conversion and/or a further hydrotreatment step configured for generating hydrogen.

Digestion of cellulosic biomass solids may be complicated by release of lignin therefrom. Methods and systems for processing a reaction product containing lignin-derived products, such as phenolics, can comprise hydrotreating the reaction product to convert the lignin-derived products to desired higher molecular weight compounds. The methods can further include separating the higher molecular weight compounds from unconverted products, such as unconverted phenolics, and recycling the unconverted phenolics for use as at least a portion of the digestion solvent and for further conversion to desired higher molecular weight compounds with additional hydrotreatment. The methods and systems can further include generating hydrogen with the further hydrotreatment.

Digestion of cellulosic biomass solids may be complicated by release of lignin therefrom. Methods and systems for processing a reaction product containing lignin-derived products, such as phenolics, can comprise hydrotreating the reaction product to convert the lignin-derived products to desired higher molecular weight compounds. The methods can further include separating the higher molecular weight compounds from unconverted products, such as unconverted phenolics, and recycling the unconverted phenolics for use as at least a portion of the digestion solvent and for further conversion to desired higher molecular weight compounds with additional hydrotreatment.

Heavy hydro-carbonaceous materials such as bitumen are upgraded in supercritical water in a continuous-flow reactor system. The present invention provides a reactor arrangement for and a method of converting bitumen and other highly viscous hydrocarbon containing materials into pumpable liquids to enable further processing of such materials while avoiding production of char. The process can be carried out in an underground reactor based on oil well technology. The reactor design and method facilitates mass transfer to dissolve bitumen in heated water and breaks down heavy hydrocarbons by controlling the temperature and pressure in zones within the flowing stream. The reactor may include an embedded electric heater.

The invention relates to a process for producing energy products, notably fuel, by catalytic cracking of a hydrocarbon-based solid material without coke formation, in which a cracking dispersion (40) is heated, said dispersion comprising: a solid material (1) in divided form containing at least one hydrocarbon-based compound; a liquid (30) which is inert with respect to catalytic cracking;
so that the cracking dispersion (40) reaches a temperature suitable for allowing catalytic cracking of at least one hydrocarbon-based compound;
characterized in that the cracking temperature is reached by mixing an amount of cracking dispersion (40) and an amount of inert liquid (30) brought to a temperature above the cracking temperature, such that the mixture formed reaches a temperature above the cracking temperature and below the temperature for formation of coke, dioxin and furan. The invention also relates to a device for performing such a process.

A method of reforming a heavy hydrocarbon distillate, which includes treating a heavy hydrocarbon distillate and a lignocellulosic biomass with a solvent, is provided. The method can be useful in maximizing conversion of the heavy hydrocarbon distillate into higher value-added distillate, for example, naphtha and a middle distillate, and allowing a sulfur compound produced by the decomposition of a heavy hydrocarbon distillate to catalyze pretreatment of the lignocellulosic biomass. Also, oxygen, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), levulinic acid, formic acid, and sulfuric acid produced by decomposition of the lignocellulosic biomass can catalyze decomposition of a heavy hydrocarbon distillate and lignocellulosic biomass, thereby activating decomposition of a heavy hydrocarbon distillate.

There is a process for the hydroconversion of mixtures of polymers or plastics which comprises the pre-treatment of the mixtures through methods selected from mechanical methods, chemical methods, thermal methods, or combinations thereof forming a pre-treated charge. The pre-treated charge is mixed with a hydrocarbon vacuum residue, optionally pre-heated, to form a reactant mixture. The reactant mixture is fed to a hydroconversion section in slurry phase, together with a catalyst precursor containing Molybdenum, and a stream containing hydrogen, forming a reaction effluent. The effluent is separated into at least one high-pressure and high-temperature separator in a vapour phase and a slurry phase. The separate vapour phase is sent to a gas treatment section with the function of separating a liquid fraction from the gas containing hydrogen and hydrocarbon gases having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms; said liquid fraction comprising naphtha, atmospheric gas oil (AGO), vacuum gas oil (VGO). The slurry phase is then sent to a separation section that has the function of separating the fractions of the Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO), Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO), Light Vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO), Atmospheric Gas Oil (AGO), from a stream of heavy organic products which contains asphaltenes, unconverted charge, catalyst and solid formed during the hydroconversion reaction. This stream of heavy organic products is partly recirculated to the hydroconversion section and partly forms a purge stream.