Visbreaking Based Integrated Process for Bitumen Upgrading and Hydrogen Production

Abstract

The large Alberta's heavy oil and bitumen reserves demand novel, cost effective upgrading schemes for distillates production and resids disposal. Vacuum resids (VR's 500ºC+) in average comprise 50 % (w/w) of these reserves. This study presents a new alternative for upgrading VR's by combining three processing steps: I. Production of modified almost instable heavy molecules by mild thermal cracking (Visbreaking, VB), II. Adsorption of modified heavy molecules over inexpensive, tailor-designed porous sorbents/catalysts, III Production of hydrogen via Low temperature Catalytic Steam Gasification (CSG) of the previously adsorbed molecules. Results will be presented on the combined processing as well as using both a model molecule and real feedstock (Athabasca VR) for the adsorption and hydrogen production steps.