Patent ID: 9132415
Filing Date: 2015-09-15
Classification: B01D,B01J,C01B,C10B,C10G,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A method of upgrading heavy oil, comprising: preheating the heavy oil to above a boiling point and below a cracking temperature to remove a water stream as steam and a first fraction comprising a first set of lighter hydrocarbons as vapours; passing the heavy oil downwardly through a series of sequential horizontal heat gradients in a temperature gradient reactor, with a temperature of each sequential heat gradient progressively increasing so that a second fraction comprising a second set of lighter hydrocarbons of the heavy oil vaporizes and a third fraction comprising a set of heavier heavy oil hydrocarbons continues to fall by force of gravity downwards where, as the third fraction passes through further sequential heat gradients of progressively increasing temperature, at least a portion of the third fraction cracks into a fourth fraction comprising a third set of lighter hydrocarbons in the presence of nascent hydrogen; fluidizing a coke bed with superheated steam, the coke bed being formed from a portion of the third fraction and deposited on a fluidized catalytic bed positioned at a bottom of the temperature gradient reactor, the superheated steam generating the nascent hydrogen by indirect heated steam reforming and water-gas shift reactions, the third fraction further comprising organo-metals, wherein the organo-metals catalyse a cracking and a hydrogenation of the heavier heavy oil fractions in the presence of the nascent hydrogen; and capturing the first, second and fourth fractions of the heavy oil which are vaporized.