Systems, methods, and catalysts for producing a crude product

Abstract

Methods and systems for contacting of a crude feed with one or more catalysts to produce a total product that includes a crude product are described. The crude product is a liquid mixture at 25° C. and 0.101 MPa. The crude product may have a total content of alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal in metal salts of organic acids of at most 90% of the total content of alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal in metal salts of organic acids of the crude feed. One or more other properties of the crude product may be changed by at least 10% relative to the respective properties of the crude feed.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 60 / 670,147 filed on Apr. 11, 2005, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to systems, methods, and catalysts for treating crude feed. More particularly, certain embodiments described herein relate to systems, methods, and catalysts for conversion of a crude feed to a total product, wherein the total product includes a crude product that is a liquid mixture at 25° C. and 0.101 MPa, and has one or more properties that are changed relative to the respective property of the crude feed. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART [0003] Crudes that have one or more unsuitable properties that do not allow the crudes to be economically transported, or processed using conventional facilities, are commonly referred to as “disadvantaged crudes”. [0004] Disadvantaged crudes may include acidic components that contribute to...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method of producing a crude product by contacting a crude feed with one or more catalysts. The catalysts used in the process have a specific pore size distribution and a specific pore volume, which helps to reduce the amount of residual micro-carbon residue (MCR) in the crude product. The MCR content of the crude product is controlled by controlling the contacting conditions. The method can also involve using a specific column of metals or compounds from columns 6-10 of the periodic Table. The resulting crude product has a reduced MCR content compared to the original crude feed. The technical effect of this patent is to provide a more efficient and effective method for producing crude products with reduced MCR content.

Problems solved by technology

Disadvantaged crudes with a relatively high TAN may contribute to corrosion of metal components during transporting and / or processing of the disadvantaged crudes.

The use of corrosion-resistant metal often involves significant expense, and thus, the use of corrosion-resistant metal in existing equipment may not be desirable.

The use of corrosion inhibitors may negatively affect equipment used to process the crudes and / or the quality of products produced from the crudes.

Disadvantaged crudes often contain relatively high levels of residue.

Disadvantaged crudes having high levels of residue tend to be difficult and expensive to transport and / or process using conventional facilities.

Organically bound heteroatoms may, in some situations, have an adverse effect on catalysts used to process disadvantaged crudes.

During processing of such crudes, metal contaminants and / or compounds of metal contaminants, may deposit on a surface of the catalyst or in the void volume of the catalyst.

Such deposits may cause a decline in the activity of the catalyst.

Disadvantaged crudes may have components that contribute coke and / or to thermal degradation of the disadvantaged crude.

It may be costly to regenerate the catalytic activity of a catalyst contaminated with coke and / or thermally degraded crude.

Additionally, high temperatures used during regeneration of a catalyst may also diminish the activity of the catalyst and / or cause the catalyst to deteriorate.

Problems are often encountered in conventional catalytic processing of crudes when metals in metal salts of organic acids are present.

Moreover, the metals in metal salts of organic acids may cause rapid deactivation of catalysts.

Treatment facilities that process disadvantaged crudes with an oxygen content of at least 0.002 grams of oxygen per gram of disadvantaged crude may encounter problems during processing.

Organic oxygen compounds, when heated during processing, may form higher oxidation compounds (for example, ketones and / or acids formed by oxidation of alcohols, and / or acids formed by oxidation of ethers) that are difficult to remove from the treated crude and / or may corrode / contaminate equipment during processing and cause plugging in transportation lines.

When processing hydrogen deficient hydrocarbons, consistent quantities of hydrogen generally need to be added, particularly if unsaturated fragments resulting from cracking processes are produced.

Hydrogen is costly to produce and / or costly to transport to treatment facilities.

Disadvantaged crudes also tend to exhibit instability during processing in conventional facilities.

Crude instability tends to result in phase separation of components during processing and / or formation of undesirable by-products (for example, hydrogen sulfide, water, and carbon dioxide).

Removal of these components, however, may cause instability in the crude, thus causing separation of the crude during transportation.

Adding diluent, however, generally increases costs of treating disadvantaged crudes due to the costs of diluent and / or increased costs to handle the disadvantaged crudes.

Addition of diluent to a disadvantaged crude may, in some situations, decrease stability of such crude.

The processes, systems, and catalysts described in these patents, however, have limited applicability because of many of the technical problems set forth above.

In sum, disadvantaged crudes generally have undesirable properties (for example, relatively high TAN, a tendency to become unstable during treatment, and / or a tendency to consume relatively large amounts of hydrogen during treatment).

Disadvantaged crudes may also include relatively high amounts of undesirable components (for example, components that contribute to thermal degradation, residue, organically bound heteroatoms, metal contaminants, metals in metal salts of organic acids, and / or organic oxygen compounds).

Such properties and components tend to cause problems in conventional transportation and / or treatment facilities, including increased corrosion, decreased catalyst life, process plugging, and / or increased usage of hydrogen during treatment.

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