Mercury removal from hydrocarbons
View Patent ↗A process is disclosed for removing mercury from a liquid hydrocarbon stream by contacting the mercury-containing liquid hydrocarbon stream with ferrous halide at moderate temperatures and without preheating the liquid hydrocarbon stream, or subjecting the liquid hydrocarbon stream to a heat treating step, immediately prior to contact with the ferrous halide particles.
1. A process comprising:
a) contacting, in a contact zone and at room temperature, a liquid hydrocarbon stream comprising hydrocarbons and mercury with unsupported ferrous halide particles wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream is not preheated, or subjected to a heat treating step, immediately prior to contact with said ferrous halide particles; and
b) removing a treated liquid hydrocarbon stream from said contact zone; wherein said treated liquid hydrocarbon stream contains at least 95 wt % less mercury than said liquid hydrocarbon stream.
2. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ferrous halide is ferrous chloride.
3. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream is a crude oil stream removed from a crude oil well.
4. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream comprises hydrocarbons and elemental mercury.
5. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream comprises at least about 0.1 ppb mercury.
6. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream comprises at least about 1 ppb mercury.
7. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream comprises at least about 100 ppb mercury.
8. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ferrous halide particles are contained in a fixed bed in said contact zone, and said liquid hydrocarbon stream is contacted with said ferrous halide particles by passing said liquid hydrocarbon stream through said fixed bed.
9. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ferrous halide particles and said liquid hydrocarbon stream are mixed to form a slurry in said contact zone, with subsequent separation by a method selected from the group consisting of 1) settling of said ferrous halide particles from said slurry to form a hydrocarbon phase and a settled particle phase, and 2) filtering of said ferrous halide particles from said slurry to form a hydrocarbon phase and a filtered particle phase; and with removal of a portion of said hydrocarbon phase from said contact zone as said treated liquid hydrocarbon stream.
10. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream is contacted with said ferrous halide particles in said contact zone at a liquid hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 10.
11. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream is contacted with said ferrous halide particles in said contact zone at a liquid hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 5.
12. A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbon stream is contacted with said ferrous halide particles in said contact zone at a liquid hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 2.