Economic Extraction of FCC FeedstockfromResidual Oils

摘要

Increasing differential cost between light and heavy crude oils and increasing demand for refinedpetroleum products have led to a surge in new deasphalting unit installations. Deasphaltingunits allow refiners to either switch to heavier, less expensive crude oils or to dig deeperinto bottom of the barrel, at minimum investment cost. The deasphalting process is particularlyadept at producing good quality FCC feedstock from highly contaminated crude oils becausethe selective partitioning of contaminants between the deasphalted oil and asphaltene fractionis favorable for contaminants that are the most detrimental to FCC operations, e.g. metals >carbon residue > nitrogen > sulfur. The right combination of solvent deasphalting followed bythe FCC will offer new opportunities in improving profitability to refiners.Distillation, deasphalting, and fluid catalytic cracking unit pilot plant data are presented thatcontrast the processing of atmospheric residue in an FCC unit with the processing ofdeasphalted oil. The data show that deasphalting produces more FCC feedstock from eachbarrel of crude processed while also providing a less contaminated FCC feedstock comparedto the processing of incremental atmospheric residue. The net result is increased productionof refined products and reduced FCC catalyst consumption relative to catalytic cracking ofresidue.While the aforementioned synergies between deasphalting and FCC have been known formany years, recent advancements in deasphalting technology and new options for asphalteneproduct utilization have broadened the appeal of the process.