Methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) conversion may be performed with a methanol recycling. Methanol may be fed to a first reactor where it may be catalytically converted under dimethyl ether formation conditions in the presence of a first catalyst to form a product mixture comprising dimethyl ether (DME), methanol, and water. The DME may be separated from the methanol and the water and delivered to a second reactor. In the second reactor, the DME may be catalytically converted under MTG conversion conditions in the presence of a second catalyst to form a second product mixture comprising gasoline hydrocarbons and light hydrocarbon gas. The methanol and the water from the first reactor may be separated further to obtain substantially water-free methanol, which may be returned to the first reactor. The separation of methanol from the water may be performed using the light hydrocarbon gas to effect stripping of the methanol.

A substantially linear ceramic or metallic radiant of ellipsoidal or polygonal cross section is placed proximate furnace tubes or coils in the radiant section of a fired heater to increase the radiant heat directed to the surface of the tubes or coils.

Method to change the molecular composition of a target medium under a condition of modified physical vacuum structure, includes introducing into an exposure chamber the target medium having a Raman spectrum with a predetermined target spectral resonance; rotating a source hydrocarbon medium in a drum adjacent to the exposure chamber, to produce a vacuum and magnetic influence; propagating the vacuum and magnetic influence to the target medium in the exposure chamber; applying a mechanical vibration to the target medium to vibrate the target medium on a molecular scale, to create colloidal molecular vibrations; transferring energy from the colloidal molecular vibrations to an electron system of atoms in molecules of the target medium until at least a portion of the molecules of the target medium cracks into shorter molecular hydrocarbon products; and withdrawing the shorter hydrocarbon molecular products from the exposure chamber.

This invention relates to the recovery of hydrocarbons i.e. to a process and system for the production of synthetic crude oil from unconventional oil sources such as oil sands, oil shale, and similar materials. The process comprises pyrolysing the feedstock in a pyrolysis liquid comprising molten metal(s) or molten salt (s).

Provided are apparatus and systems using mine spectroscopic data at various stages of the hydrocarbon extraction process. The spectrometers may be mounted on various equipment components at the various stages of the hydrocarbon extraction process to passively collect energy reflected from objects. The obtained data may be used to determine mineralogy, bitumen saturation, bitumen viscosity, and grain size distribution in the mining operations.

A method for selecting one or more crude oils from a plurality of crude oils. In some embodiments, a plurality of scenarios may be generated, each scenario comprising a plurality of values corresponding, respectively, to a plurality of uncertain parameters, the plurality of uncertain parameters comprising at least one uncertain parameter relating to a quality of a crude oil of the plurality of crude oils. In some embodiments, a stochastic programming model may be solved to obtain a solution that optimizes an objective function, and one or more crude oils may be procured based on respective procurement amounts in the solution of the stochastic programming model. In some embodiments, a chance-constrained programming model may be solved to obtain a solution that optimizes an objective function, and a plurality of feedstocks may be blended into a final product based on the solution of the chance-constrained programming model.

A process and plant for producing an olefin stream, comprising passing a feedstock stream comprising oxygenates over a catalyst thereby forming an olefin stream; using a first reactor set including a single reactor or several reactors for the partial or full conversion of the oxygenates; and in series arrangement with the first reactor set, using a second reactor set including a single reactor or several reactors, for the further conversion of the oxygenates, and a phase separation stage in between the first reactor set and the second reactor set, for thereby forming the olefin stream.

Systems and methods are provided for producing upgraded raffinate and extract products from lubricant boiling range feeds and/or other feeds having a boiling range of 400 F. (204 C.) to 1500 F. (816 C.) or more. The upgraded raffinate and/or extract products can have a reduced or minimized concentration of sulfur, nitrogen, metals, or a combination thereof. The reduced or minimized concentration of sulfur, nitrogen, and/or metals can be achieved by hydrotreating a suitable feed under hydrotreatment conditions corresponding to relatively low levels of feed conversion. Optionally, the feed can also dewaxed, such as by catalytic dewaxing or by solvent dewaxing. Because excessive aromatic saturation is not desired, the pressure for hydrotreatment (and optional dewaxing) can be 500 psig (3.4 MPa) to 1200 psig (8.2 MPa).

Methods and systems are provided herein utilizing a membrane cascade to separate a hydrocarbon feed into boiling point fractions. Also provided herein are methods for selecting membranes for said cascades to achieve the desired boiling point fraction separation.

Systems and methods are provided for block operation during lubricant and/or fuels production from deasphalted oil. During block operation, a deasphalted oil and/or the hydroprocessed effluent from an initial processing stage can be split into a plurality of fractions. The fractions can correspond, for example, to feed fractions suitable for forming a light neutral fraction, a heavy neutral fraction, and a bright stock fraction, or the plurality of fractions can correspond to any other convenient split into separate fractions. The plurality of separate fractions can then be processed separately in the process train (or in the sweet portion of the process train) for forming fuels and/or lubricant base stocks. This can allow for formation of unexpected base stock compositions.