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Development of heavy oil upgrading technologies in China

  • Quan Shi

    Quan Shi graduated from the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) with both bachelor and master of science degrees in chemical engineering. He also received a PhD in energy geology and engineering from the China University of Geosciences (Beijing). He is a professor at the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing. His research program is primarily focused on the molecular characterization of fossil fuels and environment complex mixtures such as dissolved organic matter (DOM) in various water systems by chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. His research interests span from geochemical applications in the upstream to heavy oil composition and chemical conversion in the downstream of the petroleum industry.

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    , Suoqi Zhao

    Suoqi Zhao obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1994. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil chemistry and processing technology and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technology. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and presided thrice over the National Natural Science Foundations of China. He also obtained five China patents and six international patents. His SFE technology has been commercialized in four plants.

    , Yasong Zhou

    Yasong Zhou graduated from the China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP), where he obtained his bachelor, master, and PhD degrees in chemical engineering. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are mainly focused on heavy oil chemistry and processing technology, hydrotreating of heavy oil fractions, and hydrocracking technologies. His research programs are primarily focused on heteroatomic molecule transformation over hydrotreating catalysts and the design and preparation of highly effective catalysts. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed research papers within his research span.

    , Jinsen Gao

    Jinsen Gao obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from the China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1997. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil processing technology, clean fuel production, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and one book and have been granted 56 patents of invention. The related application foundation has been studied with the financial support of the major research plan and the general programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the “973” program, and the programs of petroleum corporations (ministerial and provincial-level funding bodies). Some achievements with vivid characteristic and evident innovation have been obtained in several research fields of the technology and engineering of petroleum refining, such as the numerical simulation of petrochemical processes, the production of clean fuel, and the catalytic cracking of heavy oil.

    and Chunming Xu

    Chunming Xu obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1991. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil chemistry, heavy oil catalytic cracking process, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and new catalyst (composite ionic liquid) for C4 alkylation process. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He also obtained more than 60 China patents and 20 international patents.

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Published/Copyright: January 31, 2019
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Abstract

Heavy oils have high viscosity, density, and Conradson carbon residue and high contents of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, nickel, and vanadium, as well as asphaltenes, which can cause problems for producers, leading to catalyst deactivation and fouling and plugging of tubing, pipes, valves, and reactor flow lines. Heavy oil upgrading can be classified into carbon rejection and hydrogen addition processes, mainly including four technologies: (1) the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process, which catalytically converts heavy oil into light fractions, like liquid petroleum gas, naphtha, and light cycle oil; (2) the hydro-processing process, which catalytically converts heavy oil to high-quality feedstock for FCC and hydrocracking processes under the hydrogen atmosphere without coke formation; (3) the coking process, which thermally converts heavy oil into light liquid fractions and large amounts of coke; and (4) the solvent deasphalting process, which fractionates distillation resid to provide feedstock for residue FCC, such as the residue oil solvent extraction. This paper reviews the progress on basic research of heavy oil chemistry and processing technology developments in China. Heavy oils were comprehensively characterized by the supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation technology and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The FCC process for maximizing iso-paraffin, new residue hydroprocessing technologies, progress in coking process, and a new process – the Supercritical Fluid Selective Extraction Asphaltene Technology – were discussed. As an emerging and promising research area, molecular management techniques were prospected, as well as a new concept of coupling the SELEX-Asp with the conventional heavy oil upgrading processes.

Award Identifier / Grant number: 41773038

Award Identifier / Grant number: U1463207

Funding statement: This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Funder Id: 10.13039/501100001809, grant number 41773038 and U1463207).

About the authors

Quan Shi

Quan Shi graduated from the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) with both bachelor and master of science degrees in chemical engineering. He also received a PhD in energy geology and engineering from the China University of Geosciences (Beijing). He is a professor at the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing. His research program is primarily focused on the molecular characterization of fossil fuels and environment complex mixtures such as dissolved organic matter (DOM) in various water systems by chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. His research interests span from geochemical applications in the upstream to heavy oil composition and chemical conversion in the downstream of the petroleum industry.

Suoqi Zhao

Suoqi Zhao obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1994. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil chemistry and processing technology and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technology. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and presided thrice over the National Natural Science Foundations of China. He also obtained five China patents and six international patents. His SFE technology has been commercialized in four plants.

Yasong Zhou

Yasong Zhou graduated from the China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP), where he obtained his bachelor, master, and PhD degrees in chemical engineering. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are mainly focused on heavy oil chemistry and processing technology, hydrotreating of heavy oil fractions, and hydrocracking technologies. His research programs are primarily focused on heteroatomic molecule transformation over hydrotreating catalysts and the design and preparation of highly effective catalysts. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed research papers within his research span.

Jinsen Gao

Jinsen Gao obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from the China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1997. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil processing technology, clean fuel production, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and one book and have been granted 56 patents of invention. The related application foundation has been studied with the financial support of the major research plan and the general programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the “973” program, and the programs of petroleum corporations (ministerial and provincial-level funding bodies). Some achievements with vivid characteristic and evident innovation have been obtained in several research fields of the technology and engineering of petroleum refining, such as the numerical simulation of petrochemical processes, the production of clean fuel, and the catalytic cracking of heavy oil.

Chunming Xu

Chunming Xu obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) in 1991. He is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, CUP. His research interests are concentrated on heavy oil chemistry, heavy oil catalytic cracking process, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and new catalyst (composite ionic liquid) for C4 alkylation process. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He also obtained more than 60 China patents and 20 international patents.

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Received: 2017-08-23
Accepted: 2017-12-13
Published Online: 2019-01-31
Published in Print: 2019-12-18

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