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1. A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones, the process comprising: combining a heavy oil feedstock, a hydrogen containing gas, and a slurry catalyst in a hydrocarbon oil diluent which is not heavy oil feedstock, which slurry catalyst is unsupported in a first contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions to convert at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products;sending a mixture of the upgraded products, the sl...
1. A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones, the process comprising: combining a heavy oil feedstock, a hydrogen containing gas, and a slurry catalyst in a hydrocarbon oil diluent which is not heavy oil feedstock, which slurry catalyst is unsupported in a first contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions to convert at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products;sending a mixture of the upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a separation zone, whereby volatile upgraded products are removed with the hydrogen containing gas from the separation zone as a first overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst, non-volatile upgraded products, and the unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed from the separation zone as a first non-volatile stream;sending at least a portion of the first non-volatile stream to a solvent deasphalting unit;obtaining from the solvent deasphalting unit two streams, a stream comprising deasphalted oil, and a stream comprising asphaltenes and the slurry catalyst;sending the deasphalted oil to a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone, which contacting zone is maintained under hydrocracking conditions with additional hydrogen containing gas feed and additional slurry catalyst feed to convert at least a portion of the deasphalted oil to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming additional upgraded products;sending a mixture of the additional upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the additional hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted deasphalted oil to a second separation zone, wherein volatile additional upgraded products and the additional hydrogen containing gas as removed as a second overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst, non-volatile additional upgraded products and the unconverted deasphalted oil are removed as a second non-volatile stream; andrecycling to at least one of the contacting zones a recycled stream comprising at least one of: a) a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst; b) a portion of the first non-volatile stream; c) a portion of the second non-volatile stream, and d) mixtures thereof;wherein the slurry catalyst is of the formula (Mt)a(Xu)b(Sv)d(Cw)e(Hx)f(Oy)g(Nz)h, wherein M is at least one group VIB metal; and X is at least a promoter metal selected from: a non-noble Group VIII metal; a Group VIB metal; a Group IVB metal and a Group IIB metal, and combinations thereof; t, u, v, w, x, y, z representing the total charge for each of M, X, S, C, H, O and N, respectively; ta+ub+vd+we+xf+yg+zh=0; 0=0 and a>0. 2. The process of claim 1, wherein at least 25% of the first non-volatile stream is sent to the solvent deasphalting unit for separation. 3. The process of claim 2, wherein at least 50% of the first non-volatile stream is sent to the solvent deasphalting unit for separation. 4. The process of claim 2, wherein all of the first non-volatile stream is sent to the solvent deasphalting unit for separation. 5. The process of claim 1, wherein the first non-volatile stream is first let down in pressure through a control valve prior to being sent to the solvent deasphalting unit. 6. The process of claim 5 wherein the first non-volatile stream after being let down in pressure is sent to a flash drum and steam-stripped prior to being sent to the solvent deasphalting unit. 7. The process of claim 1, wherein the first non-volatile stream is processed in the solvent deasphalting unit by: contacting the first non-volatile stream with a hydrocarbon solvent to produce a mixture comprising the hydrocarbon solvent, the slurry catalyst, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock containing asphaltenes; andseparating the mixture to produce a stream containing deasphalted oil (“DAO”) and a stream containing slurry catalyst and asphaltenes. 8. The process of claim 7, wherein the hydrocarbon solvent comprises at least one of butane, iso-butane, n-pentane, iso-pentane, n-heptanes iso-octane, metaxylene, natural gas condensate, and combinations thereof. 9. The process of claim 7, wherein the first non-volatile stream to hydrocarbon solvent volume ratio ranges from 2:1 to 40:1. 10. The process of claim 9, wherein the first non-volatile stream to hydrocarbon solvent volume ratio ranges from 3:1 to 15:1. 11. The process of claim 7, wherein the stream containing deasphalted oil contains less than 10,000 wppm asphaltenes. 12. The process of claim 11, wherein the stream containing deasphalted oil contains less than 6,000 wppm asphaltenes. 13. The process of claim 1, wherein the recycled stream to at least one of contacting zones consists essentially of a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst. 14. The process of claim 1, wherein the recycled stream to at least one of contacting zones comprises at least a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst, and at least a portion of the second non-volatile stream. 15. The process of claim 1, wherein the recycled stream ranges between 3 to 15 wt. % of the heavy oil feedstock. 16. The process of claim 1, wherein the recycled stream is sent to the first contacting zone. 17. The process of claim 16, wherein the recycled stream to the first contacting zone consists essentially of at least a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst. 18. The process of claim 17, wherein the recycled stream to the first contacting zone consists essentially of at least a portion of the second non-volatile stream. 19. The process of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst is removed from the process as a bleed-off stream for the process to have a conversion rate of at least 98.5%. 20. The process of claim 19, wherein the bleed-off stream contains between 3 to 30 wt. % solid, as used slurry catalyst. 21. The process of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the second non-volatile stream is removed from the process as a bleed-off stream for the process to have a conversion rate of at least 98.5%. 22. The process of claim 21, wherein the bleed-off stream contains between 5 to 20 wt. % solid, as used slurry catalyst. 23. The process of claim 1, wherein the contacting zones are maintained under hydrocracking conditions with a temperature of 410° C. to 600° C., and a pressure from 10 MPa to 25 MPa. 24. The process of claim 1, wherein the separation zones are maintained at a temperature within 90° F. of the temperature of the contacting zones, and a pressure within 50 psi of the pressure in the contacting zones. 25. The process of claim 1, wherein the slurry catalyst has an average particle size in the range of 1-20 microns. 26. The process of claim 25, wherein the slurry catalyst comprises clusters of colloidal sized particles of less than 100 nm in size, wherein the clusters have an average particle size in the range of 1-20 microns. 27. The process of claim 1, wherein the process employs a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones, and wherein at least one contacting zone and at least one separation zone are combined into one equipment as a reactor having an internal separator. 28. The process of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of recirculating pumps for promoting dispersion of the heavy oil feedstock and the slurry catalyst in the contacting zones. 29. The process of claim 1, wherein additional hydrocarbon oil feed other than heavy oil feedstock, in an amount ranging from 2 to 30 wt. % of the heavy oil feedstock, is added to any of the contacting zones. 30. The process of claim 29, wherein the additional hydrocarbon feed is selected from vacuum gas oil, naptha, medium cycle oil, solvent donor and aromatic solvents. 31. The process of claim 1, further comprising an in-line hydrotreater employing hydrotreating catalysts and operating at a pressure within 50 psig of the contacting zones, for removing at least 70% of sulfur, at least 90% of nitrogen, and at least 90% of heteroatoms in the upgraded products. 32. The process of claim 1, for treating a heavy oil feedstock having a TAN of at least 0.1; a viscosity of at least 10 cSt; an API gravity at most 15; at least 0.0001 grams of Ni/V/Fe; at least 0.005 grams of heteroatoms; at least 0.01 grams of residue; at least 0.04 grams C5 asphaltenes; and at least 0.002 grams of MCR. 33. The process of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to the process is diverted to a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone, wherein the at least a portion of the diverted heavy oil feedstock, under hydrocracking conditions, is converted to lower boiling hydrocarbons. 34. The process of claim 1, wherein the slurry catalyst feed comprises a used slurry catalyst and a fresh slurry catalyst, wherein the fresh slurry catalyst is fed into a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone. 35. The process of claim 34, wherein all of the fresh slurry catalyst is for feeding into contacting zones other than the first contacting zone. 36. A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones, the process comprising: combining a heavy oil feedstock, a hydrogen containing gas, and an unsupported slurry catalyst in a hydrocarbon oil diluent which is not heavy oil feedstock, in a first contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions at a temperature of 410° C. to 482° C., and a pressure from 10 MPa to 25 MPa to convert at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products;sending a mixture of the upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a separation zone, whereby volatile upgraded products are removed with the hydrogen containing gas from the separation zone as an overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst, non-volatile upgraded products, and the unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed from the separation zone as a first non-volatile stream, wherein the separation zone is maintained at a temperature within 20° F. of the temperature of the contacting zones, and a pressure within 10 psi of the pressure in the contacting zones and;sending the first non-volatile stream to a solvent deasphalting unit;obtaining from the solvent deasphalting unit two streams, a stream comprising deasphalted oil, and a stream containing asphaltenes and the slurry catalyst;sending the deasphalted oil to a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone, which contacting zone is maintained under hydrocracking conditions with additional hydrogen containing gas feed and additional slurry catalyst feed to convert at least a portion of the deasphalted oil to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming additional upgraded products;sending a mixture of the additional upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the additional hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted deasphalted oil to a separation zone other than the first separation zone, wherein the upgraded products and the additional hydrogen containing gas as removed as an overhead stream and separated from a second non-volatile stream comprising the slurry catalyst and the unconverted deasphalted oil;recycling to at least one of the contacting zones a recycled stream comprising at least one of: a) a portion of the stream containing asphaltenes and slurry catalyst; b) a portion of the first non-volatile stream containing the slurry catalyst and the unconverted heavy oil feedstock; c) a portion of the second non-volatile stream, and d) mixtures thereof;wherein the slurry catalyst is of the formula (Mt)a(Xu)b(Sv)d(Cw)e(Hx)f(Oy)g(Nz)h, wherein M is at least one group VIB metal; and X is at least a promoter metal selected from: a non-noble Group VIII metal; a Group VIB metal; a Group IVB metal and a Group IIB, metal, and combinations thereof; t, u, v, w, x, y, z representing the total charge for each of M, X, S, C, H, O and N, respectively; ta+ub+vd+we+xf+yg+zh=0; 0=0 and a>0. 37. The process of claim 36, wherein the slurry catalyst has an average particle size in the range of 1-20 microns.