Oil-to-Chemicals Configurations Flashcards

Flashcards of key vocabulary terms, to aid in studying lecture notes about Oil-to-Chemicals configurations.

Crude-to-Chemicals (C2C)

A technology advancement allowing the direct conversion of crude oil to high-value chemical products instead of traditional transportation fuels.

Crude-to-Chemicals (C2C)

The process of refining and petrochemical integrations, enabling chemical production yields exceeding 70%-80% of the barrel compared to ~10% in a non-integrated refinery.

Conventional route to petrochemicals

They start with distillates, usually naphtha.

Drivers for Crude-to-Chemicals

An important factor because refiners face declining future demand for gasoline and fuel production due to carbon emission mandates, greater vehicle fuel efficiency, and an increasing demand for electric vehicles

Key factors for an integrated Crude-to-Chemicals

Maximum conversion of feedstocks into light chemicals and minimization of fuels products, feed and product (material balance) flexibility to adjust with changing market drivers and energy optimization (fuel and power) to reliably and economically meet the needs for high severity, high conversion process demands

Main sources for chemicals in conventional refinery

CCR and FCC processes

Crude Oil in Steam Crackers Challenges

Attempts to process directly crude oil in steam crackers were considered earlier but were not successful due the nature of crude: presence of heavy hydrocarbons leading to rapid coke formation

Key C2C strategy

Conditioning the feedstock oil (rejecting the heavy fraction and contaminants) and upgrading the rest before feeding it to the steam cracker. The rejected part can be used as fuel to bring heat to the process or upgraded in a separate process.

Higher molecular weight aromatic clusters

Asphaltenes

Primary purpose of feed conditioning

Enhancing the paraffin content of the crude, upgrading the vacuum residue fraction and reducing contaminants such as sulfur and metals

One of the most important components in the feed conditioning steps

Hydrocracker

Any process to produce more chemicals from crude oil requires to:

Reduce heavy residue to lower molecules, Raise H:C ratio around 2 for all chemicals, and Reduce sulfur and metal impurities

Companies that were the evolution of Crude-to-Chemicals Concept

Equistar Chemicals, Shell, and Aramco/SABIC COTC Complex

Two approaches to overcome coking

Fluidized bed or thermal cracking approaches

ExxonMobil Technology Concept

New cracker that is able to convert crude oil directly into petrochemicals, bypassing the need for an atmospheric crude tower

The most mature technology in Saudi Aramco’s Crude to Chemicals research program

TC2C™ Technology

A key technology component of the fixed-bed hydro processing is Saudi Aramco’s

Novel hydrocracking catalyst containing tailored mesoporous zeolite that exhibit an expected long run length (low start‐of‐run temperature) and a commensurately high yield of lighter products without excessive methane production

Another key innovative concept of TC2C™ is the

Vapor Liquid Separation Device (VLSD)

Saudi Aramco technology involves direct cracking of crude oil in a high severity dual- down-flow reactor system after first flashing the crude oil into light and heavy boiling fractions

CC2C™ technology

Multi-zone Catalytic Cracking (MCC) by Reliance

MCC is a new process developed for direct cracking of crude along with other distress streams