Petroleum vanadium

Vanadium. A residual oil was desulphurized (673 K, 115 atm) with a non-stoicheiometric vanadium sulphide (S/V, 0.8-1.8) formed in situ from VS4 Vanadium sulphide catalysts have been prepared by in situ sulphiding of vanadium complexes, e.g., bis(acetylacetonato)oxovanadium(IV), dissolved in crude petroleum.Vanadium compounds occurring in heavy oils have been activated as desulphurization and demetallization catalysts by treatment with triethylaluminium. Catalysts consisting of vanadium promoted by nickel can be prepared in situ by deposition of the metals from heavy crude oils. Ni-V hds and hdm catalysts on silica or carbon have been claimed. 

Asphaltenes have high concentrations of heteroelements sulfur, nitrogen, nickel and vanadium. Their content varies widely in petroleum oils (Table 1.5). They cause a number of problems throughout the petroleum industry. 

The petroleum industry faces the need to analyze numerous elements which are either naturally present in crude oil as is particularly the case for nickel and vanadium or those elements that are added to petroleum products during refining. 

Commercial production from petroleum ash holds promise as an important source of the element. High-purity ductile vanadium can be obtained by reduction of vanadium trichloride with magnesium or with magnesium-sodium mixtures. 

Sulfur Polymer Cement. SPC has been proven effective in reducing leach rates of reactive heavy metals to the extent that some wastes can be managed solely as low level waste (LLW). When SPC is combined with mercury and lead oxides (both toxic metals), it interacts chemically to form mercury sulfide, HgS, and lead sulfide, PbS, both of which are insoluble in water. A dried sulfur residue from petroleum refining that contained 600-ppm vanadium (a carcinogen) was chemically modified using dicyclopentadiene and oligomer of cyclopentadiene and used to make SC (58). This material was examined by the California Department of Health Services (Cal EPA) and the leachable level of vanadium had been reduced to 8.3 ppm, well below the soluble threshold limit concentration of 24 ppm (59). 

The bulk of world vanadium production is derived as a by-product or coproduct ia processiag iron, titanium, and uranium ores, and, to a lesser extent, from phosphate, bauxite, and chromium ores and the ash, fume, or coke from burning or refining petroleum. Total world production of V20 was ca 131 X 10 lbs in 1996. 

The appHcations of supported metal sulfides are unique with respect to catalyst deactivation phenomena. The catalysts used for processing of petroleum residua accumulate massive amounts of deposits consisting of sulfides formed from the organometaHic constituents of the oil, principally nickel and vanadium (102). These, with coke, cover the catalyst surface and plug the pores. The catalysts are unusual in that they can function with masses of these deposits that are sometimes even more than the mass of the original fresh catalyst. Mass transport is important, as the deposits are typically formed... 

Photooxidafions are also iudustriaHy significant. A widely used treatment for removal of thiols from petroleum distillates is air iu the presence of sulfonated phthalocyanines (cobalt or vanadium complexes). Studies of this photoreaction (53) with the analogous ziuc phthalocyanine show a facile photooxidation of thiols, and the rate is enhanced further by cationic surfactants. For the perfume iudustry, rose oxide is produced iu low toimage quantifies by singlet oxygen oxidation of citroneUol (54). Rose bengal is the photosensitizer. 

Catalytic Pyrolysis. This should not be confused with fluid catalytic cracking, which is used in petroleum refining (see Catalysts, regeneration). Catalytic pyrolysis is aimed at producing primarily ethylene. There are many patents and research articles covering the last 20 years (84—89). Catalytic research until 1988 has been summarized (86). Almost all catalysts produce higher amounts of CO and CO2 than normally obtained with conventional pyrolysis. This indicates that the water gas reaction is also very active with these catalysts, and usually this leads to some deterioration of the olefin yield. Significant amounts of coke have been found in these catalysts, and thus there is a further reduction in olefin yield with on-stream time. Most of these catalysts are based on low surface area alumina catalysts (86). A notable exception is the catalyst developed in the former USSR (89). This catalyst primarily contains vanadium as the active material on pumice (89), and is claimed to produce low levels of carbon oxides. 

The high-chromium casting alloys (50% nickel, 50% chromium and 40% nickel, 60% chromium) are designated for use at temperatures up to 900 C in furnaces and boilers Ared by fuels containing vanadium, sulfur and sodium compounds (e.g., residual petroleum products). Alloys with lower chromium contents cannot be used with residual fuel oils at temperature above 6S0 C because the nickel reacts with the vanadium, sulfur and sodium -impurities to form compounds that are molten above 650 C [27]. 

Vanadium and nickel are poisons to many catalysts and should be reduced to very low levels. Most of the vanadium and nickel compounds are concentrated in the heavy residues. Solvent extraction processes are used to reduce the concentration of heavy metals in petroleum residues. 

Merox [Mercaptan oxidation] A process for removing mercaptans from petroleum fractions by extracting them into aqueous sodium hydroxide and then catalytically oxidizing them to disulfides using air. The catalyst is an organometallic compound, either a vanadium phthalocyanine supported on charcoal, or a sulfonated cobalt phthalocyanine. Developed by UOP in 1958 and widely licensed by 1994, more than 1,500 units had been built, worldwide. Unzelman, G. H. and Wolf, C. J., in Petroleum Processing Handbook, Bland, W. F. and Davidson, R. L., Eds., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967, 3-128. 

Unisulf [Unocal sulfur removal] A process for removing sulfur compounds from petroleum fractions, similar to the Stretford process, but including in the catalytic solution vanadium, a thiocyanate, a carboxylate (usually citrate), and an aromatic sulfonate complexing agent. Developed by the Union Oil Company of California in 1979, commercialized in 1985, and operated in three commercial plants in 1989. 

These data taken together suggest that vanadium is deposited on the catalyst in three successive forms. The initial vanadium which appears on the catalyst is primarily an isolated V02+ species, presumably associated with alumina defect sites. This is followed by the diamagnetic vanadium surface phase and finally by the vanadium sulfides. This progression is illustrated by the analysis of catalyst samples taken from different positions in a reactor which had been employed in a pilot-plant treatment of a petroleum residuum (Figure 4). Note that all of... 

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