Increased production of fuels by integration of vacuum distillation with solvent deasphalting
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the claimed invention are directed to methods and apparatuses that recycle unconverted oil fractions resulting from a hydrocracking unit, by feeding the unconverted oil fractions into a vacuum flasher and processing the fractions obtained therefrom.
1. A process for recycling the unconverted oil fraction produced by a hydrocracking unit, the process comprising:
feeding an atmospheric residue fraction into a vacuum distillation unit;
processing the vacuum residue from the vacuum distillation unit or an atmospheric residue from a crude distillation unit in a solvent deasphalting extractor to obtain a deasphalted fraction;
processing the deasphalted fraction in a hydrocracking unit to obtain a fraction of unconverted oil and a fraction of hydrocarbon products;
processing the fraction of unconverted oil in a vacuum flasher to obtain a VF distillate fraction and a VF bottoms fraction, wherein said VF bottoms fraction is subjected to additional processing in a solvent deasphalting extractor; and
transferring the VF distillate fraction to the vacuum distillation unit.
2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the VF bottoms fraction is combined with the vacuum residue from the vacuum distillation unit prior to being transferred to a solvent deasphalting extractor.
3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the vacuum flasher is replaced by a vacuum distillation column.