Partial Upgrading of Oilsands Bitumen and Heavy Oil: Kinetic Modeling and Reactor Design
Date
2019-03-06
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Abstract
Partial Upgrading of bitumen and extra-heavy oil has gained significant relevance as an opportunity to economically satisfy pipeline specifications with reduced or no addition of diluent. Through a combination of mild hydrogenation and catalytic steam cracking processes, the Hydro-Steam technology proposed for partial upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen, produces oil with bench scale demonstrated low viscosity and high API gravity that meets the minimum standard for pipeline transportation. This process is undertaken directly on dried SAGD produced bitumen without distillation or separation of any kind. As part of the technology development, this research conceived and carried out a set of experiments in a continuous flow isothermal trickle bed reactor using a chemically novel catalyst, disposed in a conventional fixed bed and using Athabasca bitumen as the feedstock to study the effect of operating conditions on bitumen partial upgrading. A wide set of characterization techniques was used to evaluate the performance of the hydrogenation unit in terms of liquid product quality. The hydrogenation reactor was modeled as a trickle bed reactor and an optimization technique based on minimization of the sum of square errors (SSE) between the experimental and model predicted concentrations of sulfur and asphaltene, was developed to obtain kinetic parameters for hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodeasphaltenization (HDAs) reactions. Experiments were conducted in the temperature range of 325-350 °C and liquid Weight Hourly Space Velocities (WHSV) of 0.2-0.5 hr-1, while keeping the pressure and H2/Oil ratio constant at 1400 psig and 900 Scm3/cm3 respectively, in the hydrogenation reactor operating in an up-flow mode. API gravity improved substantially from 9 to slightly lower than 17 and viscosity was improved remarkably from 78750 cP to 1720 cP, both measured at 25°C. Viscosity values under 500 cP are reached once the mildly-hydrogenated bitumen is processed and further upgraded in a second catalytic steam cracking reactor. HDS up to 60% and HDA up to 55% were obtained during this hydrogenation step. The improved characteristics make the upgraded oil almost ready for export, refining and marketing.
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Heavy Oil Partial Upgrading, Viscosity Reduction, Pipeline Transportation, API Gravity Improvement, Sulfur and Asphaltene Reduction, Technology Development, Whole Range Bitumen, Hydrogenation
Citation
Balaghi, V. A. (2019). Partial Upgrading of Oilsands Bitumen and Heavy Oil: Kinetic Modeling and Reactor Design (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.