Process and apparatus for converting oil shale or oil sand (tar sand) to oil

Abstract

Three new embodiments to the Chattanooga Process that convert or upgrade oil bitumen, a combination of oil sands and bitumen, a combination of sand and bitumen, and oil shale to high grade low sulfur (about 0.1 to 0.5 wt. % sulfur, or less) crude oil. The invention relates to a continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil (SCO) from oil sand bitumen which has been extracted from under ground via in situ processes, or strip mined and extracted via hot water extraction processes before upgrading. It can also apply to kerogen extracted in situ from shale underground. The process involves treating the hot bitumen with sand from an extraction process or the hot oil from kerogen with ground shale containing kerogen in a fluid bed reactor where the reactant and fluidizing medium is only hydrogen. The invention also relates to a continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil (SCO) from oil shale kerogen. The invention relates to a continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil from oil bearing material, e.g., oil shale or oil sand (tar sand), through continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil from bituminous oil sand (tar sand) or shale. The process includes treating the oil sand (tar sand) or shale to produce a fluidizable feed, feeding the fluidizable feed to a fluidized bed reactor, and fluidizing and reacting the fluidizable feed in the fluidized bed reactor with a feed of hydrogen provided by a feed stream having a stream containing hydrogen in a concentration greater than 90 vol % (90 vol %-100 vol % H2). In one embodiment, the invention relates to a continuous process which can recover methane and ethane from a recycle hydrogen stream. In one embodiment, the process can recover PSA tail gas as feed to a hydrogen plant. In one embodiment, the process can be operated to reduce or eliminate the requirement for externally provided methane feed to the hydrogen plant.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This is a continuation-in-part application of previously filed copending U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 126374 entitled “Process and apparatus for converting oil shale or oil sand (tar sand) to oil” filed May 11, 2005, which claims the benefit of earlier filed provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 570,815 entitled “Process and apparatus for converting oil shale or oil sand (tar sand) to oil” filed May 14, 2004. This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 126374 and this application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 570,815. [0002] U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 126374 entitled “Process and apparatus for converting oil shale or oil sand (tar sand) to oil” filed May 11, 2005, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 570,815 filed May 14, 2004, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present inventio...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0034] In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for recycling the excess unreacted hydrogen from the reactor in which bitumen or kerogen is upgraded to high grade low sulfur oil (about 0.1 to 0.5 wt. % sulfur, or less). In the processing of oil sands and bitumen, this can produce an SCO having an API gravity of 28° to 34° and a sulfur content of about 0.1 to 0.5 wt. %. In the case of processing oil shale a lighter product is produced ranging from 28° API to as high as 40° API or more.

Problems solved by technology

In these systems, tailing oil recovery is necessary to clear the sand for disposal, however the sand is not completely cleared of bitumen.

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