Posted on 03/07/2008 7:15:40 AM PST by Red Badger
Chevron’s basic heavy-oil conversion process. The key is the preparation of the highly active catalyst incorporating the use of vacuum gas oil (vacuum resid).
Chevron Corporation plans to build a pre-commercial plant at its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., to test the technical and economic viability of a new heavy-oil upgrading technology called Vacuum Resid Slurry Hydrocracking (VRSH). VRSH has the potential to significantly increase yields of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from heavy and ultra-heavy crude oils and could be used to increase and upgrade production of heavy oil resources, according to Chevron.
The announcement came shortly after Italy-based oil major Eni signed strategic agreements with PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, that include Eni’s making available a similar heavy-oil processing technology: EST (Eni Slurry Technology). Both announcements indicate the growing reliance of refiners on processing heavy-grade crudes into fuels.
The Eni-PDVSA agreement is for the development of a block located in the Orinoco oil belt (Faja). The Orinoco belt is the world’s largest deposit of heavy oil with original oil in place equal to 1,300 billion barrels and huge reserves which are mostly still undeveloped (current oil production is approximately 600,000 barrels per day).
Heavy oils are characterized by low hydrogen to carbon ratios and high carbon residues, asphaltenes, nitrogen, sulfur and metal contents. The proven oil reserves in the world are assessed at approximately 1.2 trillion barrels, while the estimates on heavy and unconventional oil resources amount to about 4.6 trillion barrels, according to Eni. Even if only 10-15% of these resources are considered “recoverable” according to today’s upstream technologies, the quantity is huge—around 560 billion barrels, or about 70 years of US consumption at current rates.
Furthermore, the current “not-convertible” heavy fraction of the barrel (oil residues), currently marketed as fuel oil, represents a production volume of about 9 million barrels per day, an amount comparable to the total oil production of Saudi Arabia. Every year more 60 million tons of pet coke are produced all over the world as a byproduct of coking refining processes. These products have a high impact on the environment: their use as fuel in power production produces high CO2 emissions and pet coke is often accumulated in landfills.
This project will advance Chevron’s heavy-oil upgrading capability and is an important research and development initiative for the company. Given the increasing role of heavy oil in meeting the world’s growing energy demand and our significant heavy oil resources, this technology could provide a unique pathway to increase supplies of clean-burning fuels for the marketplace. —Mike Wirth, Chevron executive vice president of Global Downstream
Chevron has been actively developing its VRSH technology since 2003 and has tested it successfully on a wide range of feedstocks in multiple pilot plants at Chevron’s research center in Richmond, Calif. Chevron’s research shows the technology can achieve up to 100% conversion of the heaviest feedstock, while the best current commercial refining technology achieves less than 80% conversion.
Chevron’s approach is based on a highly active slurry catalyst composition. The highly active catalyst is prepared using a process that employs a heavier hydrocarbon oil—vacuum gas oil (VGO) or vacuum resid. Chevron has developed two variants of the process, one of which uses a lighter oil such as a light naptha in addition to the VGO.
The catalyst is prepared by first mixing an oxide of a Group VIB metal such as tungsten or molybdenum with aqueous ammonia. This is sulfided with hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) to form a slurry, which is then combined with a Group VIII metal compound such as nickel or cobalt. This moves to a mixing zone with an inert atmosphere into which the VGO is added. Further processing through a series of reactors and the addition of hydrogen result in the production of the catalyst slurry that will be used to upgrade the heavy oil in conjunction with the addition of more hydrogen. Pascagoula
Current Pascagoula refinery flow. Source: Chevron
The Pascagoula pre-commercial plant will have a capacity of 3,500 barrels per day. All necessary permits have been secured, and construction is expected to begin later this year.
EST is a proprietary technology that has been under development for 20 years for the complete conversion of heavy oils, bitumens and asphaltenes (the hard part of heavy oils) into high-quality light products, eliminating the production of both liquid and solid refinery residues.
The core of the EST process is a slurry reactor in which the heavy feed is hydrocracked in the presence of molybdenum-based catalyst (molybdenum disulfide, MoS2), which suppresses coke formation and promotes the upgrading reactions, i.e. sulfur, nitrogen, and metals removal, and CCR (Conradson Carbon Residue) reduction.
Products from this reaction go to separators to recover gas, naphtha, middle and vacuum distillates, while unconverted material and catalyst are recycled back to the EST reactor. Final products are mostly light and middle distillates that can be converted to diesel or gasoline fuels.
In commercial demonstration plant tests, Eni found that the EST scheme can enable almost 100% conversion of heavy oils, resid and tar-sands to high-quality distillates, without any coke or heavy fuel oil production.
Resources
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US Patent # 7,238,273: Process for Upgrading Heavy Oil Using a Highly Active Slurry Catalyst Composition (Chevron) *
US Patent # 7,214,309: Process for Upgrading Heavy Oil Using a Highly Active Slurry Catalyst Composition (Chevron) *
Snamprogetti’s Highlights EST Technology (Eni)
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This one produces no petroleum coke or residual oil after the process is complete. 100% of the hydrocarbon converts to gasoline or diesel.
I sure got to wonder if this discovery did not have some play in the liberals motivation for more taxing US via big oil.
According to my sources, this project has been a closely held secret until today. The Congresscritters are still in the dark.................
Well just imagine the 'timing' of the liberals taking another raise of profiteering from US, while in the dark. At the rate these liberals are going they are going to make old Chavez look like he is wearing a 'white' hat.
As the article says: this is a pre-commercial unit.
It will not operating in commercial volumes or flow rates. It will not be a profit center generating revenue for taxes at this time (at least not significantly in any sense). It is still a testing phase of the project.
This is a good example of where a company’s desire for profit accomplishes a further good for all. Certainly Chevron could live without this but in pursuit of profit is able to take a low grade product and raise its value.
I guess this where those “windfall, obscene”, etc. profits have been going.
When people only compare the total amount of oil sent to refineries in the last couple decades and ignore the quantities of the most desirable products continue to rise, they miss what is really going on in the industry.
Public Announcement Ping
“Dibs on all the chicks under 40.”
You’ll have to fight me for that, my FRiend......
They are just repeating Chevron’s first public announcement of the project yesterday.
http://www.chevron.com/news/press/release/?id=2008-03-06
“keeping you current” ping
Yes. Did Chevron receive one dime of government grant monies to do any of the research? IF they received anything from government then alllll bets are off about somebody somewhere in government not having advance knowledge at least to what was being researched.
I doubt that very, very much.
So true! Kinda like getting more prime rib from the same weight of steer. The oil industry has pulled bigger and bigger rabbits out of the same hat for years. To me the refining process is a marvel. Imagine taking a barrel of stinking goo and turning it into several useful products. I watch what it takes to bring fuel to my local station and I am just amazed. Not worshipful, just amazed.
Now that it's cheaper & infinitely more plentiful than pricey premi-crude they're spinning this as "new".
Non-existing anywhere else in the world.
they just never wanted to bother with crap oil before
Not true. Currently the heavier oil "leftovers" get sent to units like a coker that recovers some but not all of the heavies into lighter grade products. This process can convert up to 100%. It is not yet determined where the economic break even point is on the conversion.
Does “heavy oil” include waste motor oil?
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