Patent ID: 8608950

Claim:
A process for removing a metal from a resid comprising: (a) contacting the resid comprising the metal with a resid-immiscible ionic liquid to produce a mixture comprising the resid and the resid-immiscible ionic liquid, the resid-immiscible ionic liquid comprising at least one of an imidazolium ionic liquid, a pyridinium ionic liquid, an ammonium ionic liquid, and a phosphonium ionic liquid; and (b) separating the mixture to produce a resid effluent and a resid-immiscible ionic liquid effluent, the resid-immiscible ionic liquid effluent comprising the metal; wherein the resid-immiscible ionic liquid comprises at least one of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate, methylimidazolium trifluoroacetate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate, pyridinium p-toluene sulfonate, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoroacetate, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, tetraethyl-ammonium acetate, tetrabutylphosphonium methanesulfonate, 1-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate, and 1-butylpyridinium chloride; and wherein the metal content of the resid is reduced by at least 10-60% on an elemental basis; wherein the resid effluent comprises resid-immiscible ionic liquid, the process further comprising washing at least a portion of the resid effluent with water to produce a washed resid stream and a spent water stream, the spent water stream comprising the resid-immiscible ionic liquid; wherein at least a portion of the spent water stream is at least a portion of the regeneration solvent; wherein the regeneration solvent comprises water and the regenerated resid-immiscible ionic liquid stream comprises water and wherein the process further comprises contacting the resid-immiscible ionic liquid effluent with a regeneration solvent and separating the resid-immiscible ionic liquid effluent from the regeneration solvent to produce an extract stream comprising the metal and a regenerated resid-immiscible ionic liquid stream.