Process for treating a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock and a product obtained therefrom
A process for treating a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock is disclosed. The process involves separating the feedstock into a residue component and a light component, the residue component having a lower API gravity than the light component and treating at least a portion of the light component to produce a synthetic transport diluent suitable for combining with at least a portion of the residue component to produce a product which meets applicable criteria for pipeline transport.
1. A product obtained from a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, said product meeting applicable criteria for pipeline transport, said product comprising:
an amount of a residue component separated from said feedstock which includes substantially all asphaltenes of the feedstock, having an API gravity of between about −20° and about 10° and a nickel and vanadium content of 400-600 ppm wt; and
an amount of a synthetic transport diluent produced from said feedstock and treated to have an API gravity of between about 20° and about 80°;
wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock has a nickel and vanadium content of 100-400 ppm wt, the product has a nickel and vanadium content of 190-235 ppm wt and the residue component in the product constitutes 25-75% by volume of the product.
2. The product of claim 1 , further comprising an amount of an external diluent having an API gravity of between about 20° and about 80°.
3. The product of claim 2 , wherein said external diluent has a viscosity of less than about 50 centistokes.
4. The product of claim 1 , wherein said product has an API gravity of at least about 19° and a viscosity of no greater than about 350 centistokes.
5. The product of claim 1 wherein said residue component has a viscosity of greater than about 1,000,000 centistokes.
6. The product of claim 1 wherein said synthetic transport diluent has a viscosity of less than about 5 centistokes.
7. The product of claim 1 , wherein said residue component separated from said feedstock has an API gravity of between about 0°and about 5°.
8. The product of claim 1 , wherein said synthetic transport diluent has an API gravity of at least about 30°.
9. The product of claim 1 , wherein said feedstock comprises nickel and vanadium and said nickel and vanadium are concentrated in said residue component.
10. The product of claim 1 , wherein said residue component separated from said feedstock is untreated.
11. The product of claim 1 , wherein said residue component, after being separated from said feedstock, is employed without treatment.
12. The product of claim 1 , wherein said residue component separated from said feedstock is directly incorporated into said product.
13. The product of claim 1 , wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock has a nickel and vanadium content of 100-400 ppm wt and the product has a nickel and vanadium content of 84 to 104% of the feedstock.
14. The product of claim 1 , wherein the residue component in the product constitutes 34-44% by volume of the product.