China refinery tests asphaltenes extraction process

摘要

A demonstration plant in China has shown that selective extraction of asphaltenes technology can be built and operated with low technical and commercial risk. SELEX-Asp brings heavy and ultraheavy feedstocks in line with conventional oil processing costs and CO2 emissions. The process can be added to existing refineries as a separate operating unit and can reduce upgrading costs while delivering high reliability with low capital outlay. SELEX-Asp has been enhanced to selectively remove the solid asphaltenes from residuum and to recover the desirable oil components from residuum. SELEX-Asp has several advantages over conventional SDA. These include smaller and simpler extractor design, higher energy efficiency, fewer solvent requirements as well as deeper and cleaner separation. The success of SELEX-Asp in recovering a substantial amount (78.45 wt %) of high quality DAO from vacuum resid prompted PetroChina to construct a 500-bid field demonstration unit at the Panjin refinery.