Systems and methods for refining corrosive crudes
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for refining conventional crude and heavy, corrosive, contaminant-laden carbonaceous crude (Opportunity Crude) in partially or totally separated streams or trains.
1. A method for processing an opportunity crude, comprising:
separating the opportunity crude into a light material and a heavy material;
processing the heavy material using a delayed coker; and
processing only the light material and a reduced crude using a vacuum distillation process to recover a vacuum gas oil from the reduced crude and to produce a vacuum resid for the delayed coker.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the light material comprises a carbonaceous material with a boiling point below about 650° F. and the heavy material comprises a carbonaceous material with a boiling point above about 650° F.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the light material comprises a low boiling opportunity crude and the heavy material comprises a high boiling opportunity crude.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the opportunity crude is separated into the light material and the heavy material using only at least one of a pre-flash heater and an evaporator column.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the heavy material is processed with a vacuum resid using the delayed coker to convert the vacuum resid into one of a light gas oil, and a fuel grade coke product.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the heavy material is processed without vacuum distillation.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
processing the vacuum resid using the delayed coker to produce a treated product for gasoline blending.
8. A method for processing an opportunity crude, comprising:
separating the opportunity crude into a light material and a heavy material; and
processing only the light material and a conventional crude using an atmospheric crude distillation process.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the light material and the conventional crude are processed to produce at least one of a reduced crude, a diesel product, atmospheric gas oil, a kerosene product, a light naphtha fraction, and a heavy naphtha fraction.
10. The method of claim 8 wherein the light material comprises a carbonaceous material with a boiling point below about 650° F. and the heavy material comprises a carbonaceous material with a boiling point above about 650° F.
11. The method of claim 8 wherein the light material comprises a low boiling opportunity crude and the heavy material comprises a high boiling opportunity crude.
12. The method of claim 8 wherein the opportunity crude is separated into the light material and the heavy material using only at least one of a pre-flash heater and an evaporator column.
13. The method of claim 8 further comprising:
processing the heavy material with a vacuum resid using a delayed coker to convert the vacuum resid into one of a light gas oil and a fuel grade coke product.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the heavy material is processed without vacuum distillation.
15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
processing only at least one of the light material and a reduced crude using a vacuum distillation process to recover a vacuum gas oil from the reduced crude and to produce a vacuum resid for the delayed coker.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:
processing the vacuum resid using the delayed coker to produce a treated product for gasoline blending.