Use of ultrasound in petroleum residue upgradation

Abstract

Conventional processes for the upgradation of residual feedstocks, viz., thermal cracking and catalytic cracking are carried out in the temperature range of 400-520 • C. Such high temperatures can in principle be substituted by acoustic cavitation. In the present work, two vacuum residues, namely, Arabian mix vacuum residue (AMVR) and Bombay high vacuum residue (BHVR) and one asphalt, viz., Haldia asphalt (HA) were subjected to acoustic cavitation for different reaction times from 15 min to 120 min at ambient temperature and pressure. An attempt has been made to seek a performance comparison of two devices of acoustic cavitation, namely, ultrasonic bath and ultrasonic horn with regard to their ability to upgrade the petroleum residues to lighter, more value-added products mainly the hydrocarbons boiling in the range of gas oil fraction. Another attempt has been made to study the effect of ultrasound on the upgradation of the residue when it is emulsified in water with the help of different surfactants. For all the cases, a kinetic model has been developed based on the constituents of the residue so as to get an insight into the reaction mechanism. The study revealed that ultrasonic horn is more effective in bringing about the upgradation than ultrasonic bath and that the acoustic cavitation of the aqueous emulsified hydrocarbon mixture could reduce the asphaltenes content to a greater extent than the acoustic cavitation of non-emulsified hydrocarbon mixture. The reduction in asphaltenes content of BHVR was found to be more followed by AMVR followed by HA. The variation in the rate constants was found to be feed specific and the rate constants for the conditions of maximum conversion of asphaltenes to gas oil for AMVR, BHVR and HA were found to be 0.29 × 10 −4 s −1 , 1.4 × 10 −4 s −1 and 0.23 × 10 −4 s −1 , respectively.Les procédés traditionnels visantà enrichir la concentration des matières premières résiduelles, c.-à-d. le craquage thermique et le craquage catalytique, se fontà des températures variant entre 400 et 520 • C. Des températures aussiélevées peuvent, en principe,être substituées par la cavitation acoustique. Dans le cadre de cetteétude, deux résidus sous vide,à savoir le mélange arabe de résidus sous vide (MARSV) et le résidu de vide poussé de Bombay (RVPB) et un asphalte, c.-à-d. l'asphalte Haldia (AH), ontété soumisà la cavitation acoustique selon différents temps de réaction, variant entre 15 et 120 minutes,à la température et la pression ambiantes. Une tentative aété faite pour chercherà obtenir une comparaison du rendement des deux dispositifs de cavitation acoustique,à savoir un bainà ultrasons et une sondeà ultrasons, en ce qui a traità leur capacitéà enrichir la concentration des résidus de pétrole de façonà obtenir des produits plus légersà valeur ajoutée accrue, principalement les hydrocarbures enébullition dans la gamme de fractions gaz-pétrole. Une autre tentative aété faite pourétudier l'effet des ultrasons sur l'enrichissement de la concentration du résidu lorsqu'il est enémulsion dans...

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