(200g) Change of Product Yield and Quality with a Variation of Residue Conversion in a Slurry-Phase Hydrocracking of Vacuum Residue

Slurry-phase hydrocracking (SPH) technology is one of the promising technologies for upgrading of heavy oils in the refining area. Since it uses a nano-sized dispersed catalysts the asphaltene, which is known for the difficult component to be treated by heterogeneous catalysts, can be hydrogenated and converted into a light molecular sized component. However, SPH is still on-going demonstration test in a commercial field and it is not found from the literature what characteristics SPH has in a once-through operation mode. In this respects, this study investigated the change of product yield and quality with a variation of residue conversion through a once-through mode in a slurry-phase hydrocracking of vacuum residue.

The experiment was carried out with a function of reaction temperature from 420 to 440 ℃ and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV, 0.3 – 0.5 1/h), hydrogen partial pressure (80-160 bar), H₂ to feed ratio (600-2000 Nm³/kl) with molybdenum catalyst concentration of 500 wt.ppm based on metal content on feed in a 4L slurry bubble column reactor. For the analysis of the product yield and properties, gas composition was determined using a gas chromatograph (Agilent 7890) while the liquid properties for the API (D 5002-99), sulfur and metals (nickel and vanadium, D4294-03), micro-carbon residue (MCR, D4530-06), asphaltene (normal heptane insoluble content, D2007), and boiling point distribution (D7500) were all analyzed according to standard ASTM methods. Additional, the amount of sediments and the remained catalyst concentration in the liquid product was examined after reaction.