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 system for processing an opportunity crude and a conventional crude, comprising:
an opportunity crude line in fluid communication with at least one of a pre-flash heater and an evaporator column, which separates the opportunity crude into a light material and a heavy material;
a heavy material line connecting the at least one of the pre-flash heater and the evaporator column with a delayed coker, which processes the heavy material;
a light material line directly connecting only the at least one of the pre-flash heater and the evaporator column with an atmospheric crude distillation tower;
a conventional crude line in fluid communication with the atmospheric crude distillation tower, which processes only the light material and the conventional crude to produce a reduced crude; and
a single reduced crude line connected to the atmospheric crude distillation tower and in fluid communication with only a heater and a vacuum distillation tower.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the delayed coker is connected to one of a light gas oil line and a fuel grade coke line.
3. The system 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.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the light material comprises a low boiling opportunity crude and the heavy material comprises a high boiling opportunity crude.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the heavy material is processed without vacuum distillation.
6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
the vacuum distillation tower connected to the reduced crude line, which processes the reduced crude to recover a vacuum gas oil and produce a vacuum resid; and
a vacuum resid line connected to the vacuum distillation tower.
7. The system of claim 6 wherein the vacuum resid line is connected to the delayed coker, which processes the vacuum resid to produce a treated product for gasoline blending.