Co-processing heavy oils with Fischer-Tropsch syncrude

费托合成原油协同加工重油

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04366
• 负责人: deKlerk, Arno
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566473
• 关键词: Co; processing; heavy; oils; Fischer

The project proposal deals with co-processing of oilsands bitumen (heavy oil) and synthetic oil produced by Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. This type of co-processing has not been studied before. It will be shown why this specific combination holds advantages for Canadian industry, as well as why the work may lead to an improvement. Oilsands bitumen contributes 6-7 % of the gross domestic product of Canada. One of the major challenges in getting the bitumen to market is its poor fluidity (high viscosity) - it has the flow properties of toffee. This is due to the lack of light material in the bitumen and the high apparent molecular weight of bitumen. Bitumen fluidity is improved in mainly two ways: the bitumen is diluted with 25-30 % gasoline range material to produce diluted bitumen (Dilbit), or the bitumen is converted at high temperature to reduce the apparent molecular weight and produce Synthetic Crude Oil (SCO). Although Canadian bitumen producers do not currently have Fischer-Tropsch units installed, there are good reasons why this may be considered in future. Some of the advantages are: (a) FT oil is a good source of light gasoline-range material. Presently Canada imports around 17 million liters per day of gasoline-range material just to satisfy the needs for diluted bitumen production. (b) High temperature processes currently used by industry to upgrade bitumen to SCO also produce low value carbon products. These low value carbon products can be gasified to produce feed that can be used to produce FT oil. (c) During the production of FT oil a lot of heat is released. This energy can be used to produce steam, instead of burning natural gas to produce the equivalent amount of heat. The steam can in turn be used in the production of bitumen from oilsands. This proposal deals specifically with co-processing of heavy oil and FT oil. Heavy oil is upgraded on its own by Canadian industry. There are also industries that upgrade FT oil. There are no examples of integrated facilities that co-process heavy oil and FT oil. There are marked differences in reactivity, phase behavior and chemistry of these materials. Understanding and using these differences to benefit both, is a challenge and an opportunity for innovation. The approach that we want to follow is to fundamentally understand the nature and extent of the interactions during co-processing of heavy oil and FT oil. This proposal is limited to an investigation of the co-processing by mild thermal conversion. The plan is to attract industrial funding to expand the study to other conversion processes too. Technical description: During thermal conversion, hydrogen exchange between molecules and the way in which the reacting molecules are stabilized, affect liquid yield. The heavy oil is rich in species that like to exchange hydrogen to produce light gaseous products and solid coke, which reduces the amount of the more valuable liquid product. Some of our recent research (Energy Fuels 2013, 27, 3061-3070) indicated that there may be a benefit to co-process FT oil with heavy oil. FT oil is also resistant to coking (De Klerk, A. “Fischer–Tropsch refining”, Wiley-VCH, 2011). This is the key to develop an improved process by co-processing the heavy oil with FT oil. The research objective is to track hydrogen redistribution during thermal conversion, so that a fundamental understanding of the process chemistry can be developed.

该项目提案涉及油砂沥青（重油）和费托（FT）合成法生产的合成油的协同处理，这种类型的协同处理以前从未被研究过。我们将展示为什么这种特定的组合具有优势。以及为什么这项工作可能会改善加拿大国内生产总值的 6-7%。将沥青推向市场的主要挑战之一。流动性差（粘度高）——具有太妃糖的流动特性，这是由于沥青中缺少轻质物质，而沥青的表观分子量较高，改善沥青的流动性主要有两种方式：用沥青进行稀释。 25-30%汽油系列材料生产稀释沥青（Dilbit），或将沥青在高温下转化以降低表观分子量并生产合成原油(SCO)。尽管加拿大沥青生产商目前尚未安装费托装置，但未来可能会考虑安装费托装置，其优点包括： (a) FT 油是轻质汽油的良好来源。目前，加拿大每天进口约 1700 万升汽油系列材料，以满足稀释沥青生产的需求。 (b) 目前工业界使用的高温工艺将沥青升级为 SCO，也生产低价值碳产品。这些低价值碳产品可以气化来生产可用于生产 FT 油的原料 (c) 在 FT 油的生产过程中，释放出大量热量，而不是燃烧天然气。产生等量的热量，该蒸汽可用于从油砂中生产沥青。该提案专门涉及加拿大工业自行升级的重油。也是FT升级的行业目前还没有协同处理重油和 FT 油的综合设施的例子。了解并利用这些差异使两者受益，既是挑战也是机遇。我们想要遵循的方法是从根本上了解重油和 FT 油协同加工过程中相互作用的性质和程度。该提案仅限于通过温和热转化进行的协同加工研究。是为了吸引工业资金将研究扩展到其他转化过程技术描述：在热转化过程中，分子之间的氢交换以及反应分子的稳定方式也会影响液体收率。重油中富含喜欢交换氢以产生轻质气态产物和固体焦炭的物质。 FT油是还抗结焦（De Klerk，A.“费托精炼”，Wiley-VCH，2011）这是通过将重油与 FT 油共加工来开发改进工艺的关键。热转化过程中氢气的重新分布，以便对过程化学有一个基本的了解。