Upgrading of Coal Liquids. Interim Report: Hydrotreating and Fluid Catalytic Cracking of H-Coal Process Derived Gas Oils

摘要

The applicability of commercial UOP hydrotreating and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes to distillate liquids derived from the H-Coal process was evaluated. The raw H-Coal atmospheric still bottoms were rerun in a laboratory column to remove heavy ends generated during storage. This operation also substantially reduced the contents of heptane insolubles, Conradson carbon, and steam jet gum. The rerun H-Coal atmospheric still bottoms (H-coal gas oil) were used to evaluate the relative hydrogenation activity of three UOP commercial catalysts. The UOP-DCB catalyst, which was found to have the highest hydrogenation activity, was employed in the H-Coal gas oil hydrotreating process variable studies. Fluid catalytic cracking of H-Coal derived distillate liquids was carried out over a commercial zeolite catalyst. Two sets of processing conditions were employed to catalytically crack each of these feedstocks. Results show that feed hydrogen content is a dominant factor on conversion and yield structure. Hydrotreating substantially improved the cracking characteristics of the H-Coal gas oil. As more hydrogen was added, the feed showed higher conversion and increased gasoline yield with reduced carbon deposition. In the range of conditions investigated, high octane gasolines were obtained. Cycle oils containing 650 exp 0 F exp - distillate as high as 93 vol-% were generated. The lighter portions of the cycle oil, boiling between 400-650 exp 0 F, are valuable components of distillate fuels and heating oils. It is concluded that with an appropriate degree of hydrotreatment the H-Coal process derived gas oil, or any other coal derived distillate of similar quality, can be readily processed into high quality gasolines by applying advanced commercial fluid catalytic crackingtechnology. The FCC cracker, in conjunction with a hydrotreater, shows potential in playing a major role in the commercial refining of coal derived liquids. (ERA citation 04:054047)