In the next few years, the current trend in both upstream and downstream sectors will continue to require new technologies for the effective upgrading of the oil residues and of the heavy crude oils into chemicals and liquid fuels with good environmental quality. The availability of this type of technology would allow on the one hand the exploitation of the huge resources of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils, whilst, on the other hand, the total conversion of the barrel into distillates of good quality products, avoiding the production of fuel oil, bunker oil and coke. Today none of the existing commercially available technologies achieves total conversion. Carbon rejecting technologies, such as thermal cracking, coking, visbreaking, generate high amounts of products of low environmental acceptability, whose market is decreasing. Instead, the hydrogen addition technologies are more effective since they give rise to an overall upgrading of the products and represent the most efficient way to convert heavy feedstocks to distillates. However, conventional hydrocracking solutions like fixed bed and ebullated bed technologies suffer from limitations on feedstock quality as well as problems related to residue stability that limits the maximum conversion achievable.
展开▼
