"The Key to Residue Upgrading"

AdvancedEUREKA ProcessIntroduction
The Eureka process is a commercially proven thermal

Archimedes' exclamation when he discovered the principle

The unit has been operated successfully for more than 30coking have been achieved and more sophisticated andcracking process to produce valuable cracked oil andof buoyancy. The first commercial plant was constructed inyears since then.

Accumulated successful operational

robust design improvements have been implemented using

aromatic petroleum pitch from heavy residual materials.

Fuji Oil Refinery Complex in Japan and commencedexperiences and continuous engineering developments

up-to-date technologies such as computational fluid

The etymological meaning of "EUREKA" is "I've found it" -operation in 1976.

have resulted in further significant improvements to thedynamics(CFD) and finite element analysis(FEA). In addition,process. Two years of continuous operation by controllingan energy saving device has been introduced.

Advances in Technology

Outstanding Environmentally Friendly Process
Continuous operation in a closed system
Environmentally clean and healthy plant yard
Accomplishment of stringent legislative requirements

Two years of continuous operationSaving energy and resources
Ground-breaking reliable design

Molten Pitch & Pitch Flaker

Engineering Tools for Robust Design
By CFD

By CFD

By FEA

Unique Pitch Utilization
Binder for metallurgical coke
Boiler fuel as solid
Feedstock to gasification as liquid
Syncrude Production Scheme in Combination with Gasification

Pitch Combustion System
Steam

Pitch SiloConveyer

Chemical and Refinery Integration in Combination with Gasification

DeSOx
LPG
Recovery

Boiler

New Reformer

Off Gas to Refinery Fuel

Aromatics
Complex

L’t Naphtha

Benzene / PX/
Cyclohexane / Cumene

Chemicals
BitumenCrudeFlasherSyncrude

WWTECO

Treated Cracked Oil

NH3

SR-VGO &Cracked
Distillates
Hydrocracker

DeNOx

EUREKA

MillEP

BFW

VacuumFlasher

Pitch Warehouse

FGStack

H2

CO2Ethylene / Propylene

Ethylene
Cracker

Reformer
H’y NaphthaHigh Conv.
FCC

MHC

Diesel UltraDeep HDSDistillates

Gas Heater
Ash Handling

Crude

Crude Distillation

Mg(OH)EUREKA

LiquidPitch

H2
Production
Gasification

CO2Removel
Power & Steam

Sulfur Free
Fuels

Residue

EUREKA

LiquidPitch

H2
Synthesis Gas

Gasification

PowerProcess Description
The Eureka plant, using heavy vacuum residue, employs

The effluent from the cracking heater flows into one of theA simultaneous radical condensation reaction causes theThe cracked vapor is fractionated in the fractionator into

process technology for thermal cracking, cracked oil

two reactors through an automatically operated switch

remnant to finally form a petroleum pitch. At the end ofheavy cracked oil and light cracked oil.

fractionation, and pitch cooling and flaking. Figure 1 is avalve.

the reaction, the pitch remaining in the reactor is quenched

A large amount of heat from the reactor is recovered in theThus the reaction in the reactor is carried out

The feedstock

semi-batch-wise under operating conditions of 50 –then allowed to flow down to the pitch stabilizer.

form of steam. Cracked gas is compressed and then routed

from storage tank is first preheated at the feed preheater,

80kPa(g) and 400ºC – 430ºC. In the reactor the thermally

The molten pitch is continuously pumped out from theto a sour gas treater. Steam condensate is sent to the foul

led to the cracking heater via the bottom section of thecracked low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons are stripped

pitch stabilizer and sent to the pitch flaker where it iswater treatment facilities.

fractionator and heated to about 490ºC.

by steam and sent to the fractionator.

cooled and solidified into flakes.

simplified Eureka process flow diagram.

Figure 1. EUREKA PROCESS FLOW

Option:Ammonia - Water Power Generation System

Cracking Heater

Fractionator
Cracked Gas toSour Gas Treater

Cracking Heater

Feed Preheater

Gas
Compressor
ReactorLight Oil Stabilizer

ReactorVacuum Residue
Feedstock

Pitch Stabilizer

Deaerated Boiler
Feedwater
Reactor

Steam Superheater

Pitch Draw-off Pump

Light Craked Oil

Pitch Draw-off Pump
Pitch Flaker

Heavy Craked Oil

Pitch Flaker
Petroleum Pitch
Cooling Water
Foul Water

Performance

Advances in TechnologyFeedstock
Heavy petroleum residue with high asphaltene
content is preferably used as a feedstock. Typicalproperties of the feedstock are shown in Table 1.

3) As a gasifier feedstock
As a gasifier feedstock, the pulverized pitch has
already been tested in a commercial plant.
The liquid charge is an alternative for more
attractive utilization.

Table 1 Typical Feedstock Properties
Feedstock

Vacuum residue ofMiddle East crude mixture

API5.4

Specific gravity 15/4ºC

1.033

Conradson carbon residue content

22.5 wt%

Sulfur content

4.0 wt%Nitrogen content

0.25 wt%

Asphaltene content

8.0 wt%Table 3 Typical Properties of Product Pitch
Softening point *225ºC

Volatile matter
Solvent insoluble

40 wt%
76 wt%

Saving Energy and Resources

Benzene50 wt%

1. Ammonia–Water Power Generation System

Quinoline

15 wt%For the purpose of energy saving in the process, therefined Rankin Cycle using ammonia-water wasapplied in 2005 in Fuji Oil Refinery.

Sulfur content

5.9 wt%Table 4 Comparison of Properties of Solid Fuel

1. Large Yield of Cracked Oils
Products yields from this feedstock are shown in Table 2.
The yield of cracked oils is greater than those fromother residue thermal cracking processes.
Table 2 Typical Product Yield

EurekaDelayed Coking

Fluid Coking

Volatile matter,wt%

40 - 50

6 - 144 - 10

Heating value,
Kcal/Kg

8,800 - 9,200

7,800 - 8,600

7,700 - 8,000

H2S gas

0.7 wt%Hardgroveindex

150 - 170

50 - 100

15 - 20

C4- Cracked gas

3.6 wt%Fuel Ratio *<25 - 10

10 - 20

C5/240ºC Cracked light oil19.2 wt%

240/540ºC Cracked heavy oil

42.5 wt%

Req'dfineness, %(200 mesh pass)

BaseMore

MorePetroleum pitch

34.0 wt%

2. Production of Valuable Petroleum Pitch
The most characteristic feature of the Eureka Process
is that the thermally cracked remnant is a pitch of anaromatic nature in a molten state during the process
and is stable as a solid. Typical pitch properties areshown in Table 3. In the various scenarios described
below, there are numerous possibilities for utilizationof the pitch.

1) As a binder for metallurgical coke
Steel companies in Japan have been using this pitch
to save expensive coking coal since 1976.

2) As a boiler fuelSingle burning of pulverized pitch has beencommercialized at the refinery's 130 T/H utility
boiler since April 1983. For boiler fuel the typical
pitch properties, compared with those of petroleum
cokes are listed in Table 4.

* Fixed carbon / Volatile matter

3. Product Oil is Easy to Upgrade
The product cracked oil contains only very small
amounts of metals, carbon residues and asphaltenes.
So it is possible to produce a large amount of low
sulfur fuel oil or light distillates from the petroleum
residual feedstock by providing downstreamhydrodesulfurization,
catalytic
cracking
orhydrocracking. Typical product oil properties areshown in Table 5.

Unitº API

CLOCHO

47.3

20.2

Sulfur

wt%

1.26

2.70

Nitrogenwt ppm

260

1980

ºC

43218

ºC

322

520

ºC

333

549

g/100g

5518

ASTM Dist. IBP
95%
EP
Br. No.

The lower level heat of Eureka fractionator overhead
stream (around 110ºC), which was originally wasted
by cooling with air fin cooler, is now recovered aselectric power, by introduction of the system wherethe design capacity of power generated is 4,000 KW,
thus electric power consumption in the Eureka
process is almost balanced.

2. Waste Water Recycling System
From the viewpoint of saving resources and global
application of the Eureka process, the reduction ofwaste water is regarded as one of the key issues andtherefore a Waste Water Recycling System is being
developed. This system consists of the combinationof stripping and distillation columns and the steam
recovered from the distillation column can berecycled to the reactor through the steam
superheater.
The system is not yet applied in the actual unit but
will be ready for commercial use with some furtherdevelopment.
Table 6 Utilities Requirement

Table 5 Typical Product Oil Properties
Property

Through more than 30 years operation in Fuji Oil
Refinery, many challenging improvements tooperability and maintainability have been performed.
During two years of continuous operation a highavailability of around 97% (including plannedshutdowns) has been achieved.

n-Heptane* By Ring & Ball method

Products

Improving Operability and Maintainability(Two Years of Continuous Operation)

Diene value

g/100g42

Asphaltene

wt ppm2580

Niwt ppm< 0.2< 0.2Vwt ppm

< 0.2

< 0.2

Current

Remarks(Kwh / Kl·Feed)

19.3

Balance *1

Fuel(GJ / Kl·Feed)

1.44

Balance *2

BFW(ton / Kl·Feed)

0.35

0.07 *3

Steam(Kg / Kl·Feed)-26 (export)-Electricity*1 When being applied Ammonia-Water Power Generation System.
*2 When being utilized C4 Cracked Gas generated.
*3 When being applied Waste Water Recycling System.

Enhancing Reliable Design
1. Analysis of bubbling type reactor
The coking issue in the reactor top section andoverhead line is caused by the entrained cokeprecursor in the reactor vapor. For resolving thisissue, the liquid droplet behavior in the reactor wasanalyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
As the result of this investigation, the amount ofsteam injected and the layout of steam injection
nozzles were optimized so that the control of coking
can be limited by suppressing the amount ofentrainment.
The new reactors applied with this design concept
were installed in 2007 in Fuji Oil Refinery and theperformance is under observation.

2. Analysis of thermal stress on reactor support typeThe reactor was exposed to conditions of thermal
stress because the temperature of the reactor
increased from 350ºC to 430ºC every 3 hrs.
In spite of these circumstances, the Eureka reactors
have, up to now, coped extremely well except only
for some limited repairs required around the saddles,
which originally supported the reactors on thestructure. Finite element analysis has now been
performed to determine a more robust design for thesupports.
Reactors with new type of support were installed in2007.

3. Analysis of cracking heater
The cracking heater is one of the critical equipmentin the Eureka process. From an operability andmaintainability point of view a sufficient run length
between decoking has to be achieved. To estimate
the fouling rate in the tubes, a tubular fouling model
was established.
Currently, by using CFD, heat distribution in thecracking heater can be analyzed.
By changing burner distributions and firing states,
equalization of heat flux and surface temperature ofheating tube can be achieved.
In combination with the coking simulator and firing
analysis by CFD the local formation of coke can beprevented.Minato Mirai Grand Central Tower
4-6-2, Minatomirai, Nishi-ku,
Yokohama 220-8765, Japan
http://www.chiyoda-corp.com

Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.
www.foc.co.jp

P14011000