Abstract. Refineries in the future will require high flexibility to cope with a fluctuating market due to price variations and strong regulations to restrict selling residuals as fuels. As part of this flexibility, refineries must be prepared to increase the amount of heavy crude oil to be incorporated in their feedstocks by integrating new deep conversion technologies that will be able to convert these residues into clean products to optimize the product slate.
In this paper, integration of a HDH pioneer plant of 15 TBPD into an existing refinery in Venezuela is presented as a solution to increase flexibility to process heavy oils. HDH is a new hydroconversion technology that converts over 90% of the bottom of the barrel into clean products with high liquid yields and quality, increasing middle distillates by 33%. The process does not leave any undesirable byproduct for disposal. The main new features introduced by HDH are the use of an inexpensive natural catalyst and a catalyst separation system that allows the refinery to obtain a high quality unconverted bottom to be incorporated as a fuel component. Sulphur is discharged as a valuable fertilizer.
Three different process schemes are discussed for the integration of this novel process into the refinery, including different types of feedstocks and product hydrotreatment options. This 15 TBPD HDH unit allows the refinery to reduce by 42 TBPD production of high sulphur fuel oil while 60 TBPD of heavy crude are incorporated into the refinery slate. HDH installation in the Cardón refinery in Venezuela will achieve commercial process maturity while at the same time will provide the refinery with enough flexibility to process more heavy oil and optimize its product siate.
Résumé. Les raffineries du futur auront besoin d'une grande souplesse pour faire face au marché devenu fluctuant du fait des variations de prix et des réglementations sévères relatives à la vente des résidus comme carburant. Les raffineries devront, par exemple, être préparées à augmenter la quantité d'huiles lourdes brutes à incorporer à leurs charges en intégrant des techniques permettant de convertir ces résidus en produits propres pour optimiser les produits schisteux.
Dans cet article, l'intégration d'une usine HDH pilote de 15 TBPD à une raffinerie existante au Venezuela est présentée comme une solution pour atteindre une plus grande souplesse de traitement des huiles lourdes. HDH est une nouvelle technique d'hydroconversion permettant de convertir plus de 90% du fonds du baril en produits propres avec des rendements et une qualité élevés, tout en augmentant les distillats moyens de 33%. Aucun sous-produit indésirable ne reste à éliminer. Les principales caractéristi