초록 ▼

A new residuum full hydroconversion slurry reactor system has been developed that allows the catalyst, unconverted oil, products and hydrogen to circulate in a continuous mixture throughout an entire reactor with no confinement of the mixture. The mixture is partially separated in between the reacto

A new residuum full hydroconversion slurry reactor system has been developed that allows the catalyst, unconverted oil, products and hydrogen to circulate in a continuous mixture throughout an entire reactor with no confinement of the mixture. The mixture is partially separated in between the reactors to remove only the products and hydrogen while permitting the unconverted oil and the slurry catalyst to continue on into the next sequential reactor. In the next reactor, a portion of the unconverted oil is converted to lower boiling point hydrocarbons, once again creating a mixture of unconverted oil, products, hydrogen and slurry catalyst. Further hydroprocessing may occur in additional reactors, fully converting the oil. The oil may alternately be partially converted, leaving a highly concentrated catalyst in unconverted oil which can be recycled directly to the first reactor. The slurry reactor system is, in this invention, preceded by an in-line pretreating step, such as hydrotreating or deasphalting. Following the slurry reactor system, fully converted oil may be subsequently hydrofinished for the removal of hetoroatoms such as sulfur and nitrogen.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. A process for the hydroconversion of heavy oils with a slurry, said process employing at least two upflow reactors in series with a separator in between each reactor, said process comprising the following steps: (a) combining a heated heavy oil feed and a hydrogen gas to form

What is claimed is: 1. A process for the hydroconversion of heavy oils with a slurry, said process employing at least two upflow reactors in series with a separator in between each reactor, said process comprising the following steps: (a) combining a heated heavy oil feed and a hydrogen gas to form a mixture; (b) contacting the mixture at pretreating conditions in at least one pretreating reactor; (c) passing the effluent of step (b) to a post-treating separator; (d) passing products and hydrogen overhead from the post-treating separator and combining bottoms from the post-treating separator with an active slurry catalyst composition to form a mixture; (e) passing the mixture of step (d) to the bottom of the first upflow reactor, which is maintained at slurry hydroconversion conditions, including elevated temperature and pressure; (f) removing a vapor stream comprising product, hydrogen, unconverted material and slurry catalyst overhead from the first reactor and passing it to a separator; (g) in the separator of step (f), removing a vapor stream comprising product and hydrogen overhead to further processing and passing a liquid bottoms stream, comprising unconverted material and slurry catalyst, to the bottom of the second upflow reactor, which is maintained at slurry hydroconversion conditions, including elevated temperature and pressure; (h) removing a vapor stream comprising product and hydrogen, unconverted material and slurry catalyst overhead from the second reactor and passing it to a second separator; (i) in the second separator, removing a vapor stream comprising products and hydrogen overhead to further processing and passing a liquid bottoms stream, comprising unconverted material and slurry catalyst to further processing. 2. The process of claim 1, wherein the pretreating reactor is selected from the group consisting of a hydrotreating reactor or a deasphalting reactor. 3. The process of claim 2, wherein the hydrotreating reactor is a fixed bed reactor which comprises at least one catalyst bed of hydrotreating catalyst. 4. The process of claim 1, in which a pretreating process employing deasphalting uses solvents selected from the group consisting of ethane, propane, butane and pentane. 5. The process of claim 1, wherein pretreating conditions further comprise those suitable for hydrotreating. 6. The process of claim 5, wherein hydrotreating conditions further employ temperatures in the range from 300 and 750 F., space velocities in the range from 0.25 to 2 LHSV, pressures in the range from 500 to 2000 psia and hydrogen recirculation rates are between 1000 and 5000 SCF/Bbl. 7. The process of claim 1, wherein a pretreating process employing hydrotreating uses a catalyst comprising a metal selected from Group VIIIA or Group VIB. 8. The process of claim 7, wherein Group VIII metals are selected from the group consisting of platinum or palladium on an alumina or siliceous matrix. 9. The process of claim 1, wherein the bottoms material of step (g) is recycled to step (a), the mixture of step (a) further comprising recycled unconverted material and slurry catalyst. 10. The process of claim 1, wherein the bottoms material of step (g) is passed to the bottom of a third reactor which is maintained at slurry hydroconversion conditions, including elevated temperature and pressure. 11. The process of claim 1, in which a liquid recirculating reactor is employed in at least one of the reactors. 12. The process of claim 10, in which the recirculating reactor employs a pump. 13. The process of claim 1, in which hydroprocessing conditions employed in each reactor comprise a total pressure in the range from 1500 to 3500 psia and a reaction temperature of from 700 to 900 F. 14. The process of claim 13, in which hydroprocessing conditions employed in each reactor comprise a total pressure in the range from 2000 to 3000 psia and a reaction temperature of from 775 to 850 F. 15. The process of claim 1, wherein the separator located between each reactor is a flash drum. 16. The hydroconversion process of claim 1, wherein the heavy oil is selected from the group consisting of atmospheric rediuum, vacuum residuum tar from a solvent deasphalting unit, atmospheric gas oils, vacuum gas oils, deasphalted oils, olefins, oils derived from tar sands or bitumen, oils derived from coal, heavy crude oils, synthetic oils from Fischer-Tropsch processes, and oils derived from recycled oil wastes and polymers. 17. The hydroconversion process of claim 1, wherein the process is selected from the group consisting of hydrocracking, hydrotreating, hydrodesulphurization, hydrodenitrification, and hydrodemetalization. 18. The process of claim 1, wherein the active slurry catalyst composition of claim 1 is prepared by the following steps: (a) mixing a Group VIB metal oxide and aqueous ammonia to form a Group VI B metal compound aqueous mixture; (b) sulfiding, in an initial reaction zone, the aqueous mixture of step (a) with a gas comprising hydrogen sulfide to a dosage greater than 8 SCF of hydrogen sulfide per pound of Group VIB metal to form a slurry; (c) promoting the slurry with a Group VIII metal compound; (d) mixing the slurry of step (c) with a hydrocarbon oil having a viscosity of at least 2 cSt @ 212�� F. to form an intermediate mixture; (e) combining the intermediate mixture with hydrogen gas in a second reaction zone, under conditions which maintain the water in the intermediate mixture in a liquid phase, thereby forming an active catalyst composition admixed with a liquid hydrocarbon; and (f) recovering the active catalyst composition. 19. The process of claim 1 in which at least 90 wt % of feed is converted to product.