Treatment of vacuum residues in hydroconversion conditions

Abstract

In this paper the use of a liquid homogeneous catalyst has been studied in reactivity vacuum residues by hydroconversion under different conditions. To cover a wide range of compositions, six (6) vacuum residues were selected from crude mixtures. Hydroconversion test were performed in batch reactor with hydrogen atmosphere at about 2000psi in a temperature range between 430 and 480°C. The results allowed to establish that the reactivity hydroconversion conditions about coke formation is higher in vacuum residues with higher content of resins and asphaltenes. The reaction conditions promote distillate formation, however, with increasing stringency conditions, the distillate yield decreases due to distillate transformation into temperature range 430 and 460°C compared to the tests performed without catalyst demonstrating that the use of homogeneous catalyst is an alternative to treating vacuum residues and results are satisfactory in the conversion processes. Finally, predictive expressions have been developed in the formation of products depending on the conditions of temperature and physicochemical properties of processed vacuum residue.