Systems and methods for producing a crude product and compositions thereof

Abstract

Systems and methods for producing a crude product are described herein. Systems include an upstream contacting zone and a downstream contacting zone coupled to the upstream contacting zone. The upstream contacting zone and the downstream contacting zone include one or more catalysts. Contact of a hydrocarbon feed with the one or more of the catalysts produces a hydrocarbon feed / total product mixture having a molybdenum content of at most 90% of the molybdenum of the hydrocarbon feed. Contact of the hydrocarbon feed / total product mixture in downstream with one or more downstream catalysts produces a crude product having a molybdenum content of at most 90% of the molybdenum content of the hydrocarbon feed and at most 90% of the residue content of the hydrocarbon feed. Methods of producing a crude product using said systems are described herein. Compositions of said crude product produced from said systems and methods are described herein.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 850,109 filed Oct. 6, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to systems, methods, and catalysts for treating hydrocarbon feeds, and to compositions that can be produced using such systems, methods, and catalysts. More particularly, certain embodiments described herein relate to systems, methods, and catalysts for conversion of a hydrocarbon 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 hydrocarbon 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 facil...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes methods for converting hydrocarbon feeds to crude products using catalysts. The methods involve contacting the hydrocarbon feed with one or more catalysts in a fixed bed reactor to produce a total product that includes the crude product. The crude product has a specific composition and viscosity. The methods can also involve controlling contacting conditions, such as temperature, pressure, and space velocity, to optimize the conversion process. The invention also describes the use of specific catalysts and compounds of metals from columns 6-10 of the Periodic Table. Overall, the patent provides technical means for efficiently producing crude products with desired properties.

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

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.

It may be costly to regenerate the catalytic activity of a catalyst contaminated with coke.

High temperatures used during regeneration may also diminish the activity of the catalyst and / or cause the catalyst to deteriorate.

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

Organically bound heteroatoms may, in some situations, have an adverse effect on 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.

Basic nitrogen compounds may have adverse effects on catalysts used in cracking processes, thus reducing the efficiency of the cracking operation.

When processing of 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).

Conventional processes often lack the ability to change a selected property in a disadvantaged crude without also significantly changing other properties in the disadvantaged crude.

For example, conventional processes often lack the ability to significantly reduce TAN in a disadvantaged crude while, at the same time, only changing by a desired amount the content of certain components (such as sulfur or metal contaminants) in the disadvantaged crude.

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.

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

Other undesirable properties include relatively high amounts of undesirable components (for example, residue, organically bound heteroatoms, metal contaminants, metals in metal salts of organic acids, and / or organic oxygen compounds).

Such properties 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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