Hydrocracking capabilities

Our catalyst development effort is aimed at better hydrocracking capability. Hydrodeoxygenation is achieved readily with the CoMo catalyst in a sulfided form. Better distillate yield with minimal aromatic saturation is our current goal. To this end, we have been... 

The question then lies in the selection of more appropriate feedstocks for these two processes. The cost of hydrocracking leads to selecting feedstocks that are the easiest to convert as for catalytic cracking, its flexibility and extensive capabilities lead to selection of heavier feedstocks. 

Combined with hydrodesulfurization, the process is fully applicable to the feed preparation for fluid catalytic cracking and hydrocracking. The process is capable of using a variety of feedstocks including atmospheric and vacuum residues derived from various crude oils, oil sand, visbroken tar and so on. 

The objective of Task 1 is to compare the denitrogenation capability of three pairs of active metals (Co-Mo, Ni-Mo, and Ni-W) which are being used commercially for hydrotreating and hydrocracking of petroleum. 

Under such conditions, the focus of retrofitting and revamping existing units will be optimizing middle-distillate production. Consequently, to meet higher quality requirements for middle distillates, E.U. refiners are projected to invest in hydrocracking capacity. Such investments may include standalone units and moderate conversion of units upstream of the FCC.15 Refiners will also raise hydrotreating capability. 

The LC-Fining process is a hydrocracking process capable of desulfurizing, demetallizing, and upgrading a wide spectrum of heavy feedstocks by means of an expanded bed reactor. Operating with the expanded bed allows the processing of heavy feedstocks, such as atmospheric residua, vacuum residua, and oil sand bitumen. 

Hydrocracking is a process that accomplishes the same goals as catalytic cracking but the presence of hydrogen and more specific catalyst often allows a much better control of the reaction and therefore results in a better distribution of products. The hydrocracker is operated at elevated pressures (several thousand psi in the case of the heavier feedstocks) and employs a bifunctional catalyst that has sites capable of promoting the hydrogenation reactions as well as the cracking reactions. 

One example of a single variable control strategy is applied to a stripper in a hydrocracking unit. The main purpose of the stripper is to remove H2S and noncondensable components from the bottom product. One of the key indicators identified is the water dew point at the top of the stripper column. As a matter of fact, the dew point is a function of column overhead vapor composition and the amount of water. There was no monitoring capability available for the dew point temperature. If the column top temperature is lower than the dew point, the hydrogen sulfide will dissolve in the condensed water and cause corrosion to the column overhead system. 

In 1995, N.S. Srinivasan used pyrolysis GC-MS to identify compounds present in Athabasca bitumen capable of creating anisotropic toluene-insoluble (TI) solids, known for fouling bitumen upgrading units. In the study, Srinivasan compared TI with a commercial hydrocracking unit and TI formed in a laboratory using atmospheric tower bottoms of hydrocracked bitumen as feed. Both types of TI were exposed to excess toluene at ambient temperature to remove all toluene-soluble components. TI samples were then exposed to the pyrolytic temperatures of 460 and 750°C. With a temperature... 

A comparison of the fitting capability of all functions reported in Tables 12.20 and 12.21 was performed by statistical methods. The procedure for parameter estimation is described below the four-parameter Beta-distribution function nsing a single distillation data set is taken as an example, which corresponds to a simnlated distillation curve of hydrocracked Maya crude oil ... 

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