Separators hydrocracking

Build separate hydrocrackers for light and heavy feeds. 

In an effort to obtain higher value products from SRC processes, a hydrocrackiag step was added to convert resid to distillate Hquids. The addition of a hydrocracker to the SRC-I process was called nonintegrated two-stage Hquefaction (NTSL). The NTSL process was essentially two separate processes ia series coal Hquefaction and resid upgrading. NTSL processes were iaefficient owiag to the inherent limitations of the SRC-I process and the high hydrocracker severities required. 

British Coal Corp. is developing a gasoline-from-coal process at a faciUty at Point of Ayr (Scotiand). This process involves treatment with Hquid recycle solvents, digestion at 450—500°C, filtration to separate unconverted residues, and separation into two fractions. The lighter fraction is mildly hydrotreated, and the heavier one is hydrocracked (56). 

Product separation for main fractionators is also often called black oil separation. Main fractionators are typically used for such operations as preflash separation, atmospheric crude, gas oil crude, vacuum preflash crude, vacuum crude, visbreaking, coking, and fluid catalytic cracking. In all these services the object is to recover clean, boiling range components from a black multicomponent mixture. But main fractionators are also used in hydrocracker downstream processing. This operation has a clean feed. Nevertheless, whenever you hear the term black oil, understand that what is really meant is main fractionator processing. 

In the two-stage operation, the feed is hydrodesulfurized in the first reactor with partial hydrocracking. Reactor effluent goes to a high-pressure separator to separate the hydrogen-rich gas, which is recycled and mixed with the fresh feed. The liquid portion from the separator is fractionated, and the bottoms of the fractionator are sent to the second stage reactor. 

In the first configuration, the first stage of the first reactor hydrotreats the feed and partial hydrocracking takes place in a second stage of this first reactor. Fresh feed is mixed with recycled and make-up H2 to feed the first reactor. A cold separator is used to separate the liquid product from this first reactor, prior to mixing with additional fresh H2 and fed to the second reactor. 

Superficially the Oryx GTL refinery design has much in common with the SMDS process, but there are important differences. There is no separate hydrotreater, which limits production of chemicals, such as waxes. The hydrocracker employs the Chevron Isocracking technology, which is based on a sulfided supported base-metal catalyst that was designed for crude oil conversion. The operating conditions of the hydrocracker are also more severe (>350°C, 7 MPa) than those required by the SMDS process (300-350°C, 3-5 MPa). Only intermediate products are produced (Table 18.13),5 with the naphtha slated as cracker feed and the distillate as blending component for diesel fuel. 

Catalytic processes (finid catalytic cracking, catalytic hydrocracking, hydro-treating, isomerization, ether manufacture) also create some residuals in the form of spent catalysts and catalyst fines or particulates. The latter are sometimes separated from exiting gases by electrostatic precipitators or filters. These are collected and disposed of in landfills or may be recovered by off-site facilities. The potential for waste generation and hence leakage of emissions is discussed below for individual processes. 

Hydrocracking catalyst a catalyst used for hydrocracking which typically contains separate hydrogenation and cracking functions. 

In the hydrocracking process, this phenomenon is exploited to shift catalyst selectivity from the naphtha to the distillate products. Here the wide separation of sites is exploited to minimize the potential for secondary cracking in initial products and intermediates. This, along with the introduction of escape routes for the primary product tends to preserve the higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, thereby producing more dishllates [49, 61, 62]. 

The absence of butylnaphthalene would suggest that H4P was not cracked but the butylnaphthalene peak may not have been separated from other peaks as was noted by Haynes ( ). Butyl and ethyl tetralins would arise firom the hydrocracking of HgP, but whether one or both isomers was involved was impossible to assess. These two compounds could also be derived firom H4P. 

Bitumen is a hydrogen-deficient oil that is upgraded by carbon removal (coking) or hydrogen addition (hydrocracking) (2,4). There are two methods by which bitumen conversion can be achieved by direct heating of mined tar sand and by thermal decomposition of separated bitumen. The latter is the method used commercially, but the former has potential for commercialization (see Fuels, synthetic). 

---