Hydrocracking of complex mixtures : from bulk properties, over fundamental kinetics to detailed product composition

Crude-Oil-to-Chemicals (COTC) is a novel concept in the oil industry in which the production of base chemicals is preferred over fuels. This concept requires an intensive integration of refinery and petrochemical operations and, in most cases, hydroconversion and steam cracking play an essential role. In the present work, particularly the role of hydroconversion is assessed in selected COTC scenarios via a simulation framework based on fundamental modeling that seamlessly integrates a Single-Event Microkinetics description of the cracking reactions with a molecular reconstruction strategy based on Shannon Entropy maximization for determining the detailed feedstock composition. Dealkylation and ring opening reactions have been identified as the crucial ones to produce good steam cracker feeds, i.e., mixtures of paraffins in the C3-C21 range, especially n-paraffins. Simulation results show that for a typical VGO paraffins yield in the desired fraction increases from 8.9% wt/wt to 19.6% wt/ wt with an increase of +5 kJ/mol in the acidity strength of the catalyst (Delta Hprot) and an increase of +10 degrees C in the operation temperature. In general, it was found that the yield of the total C3-C21 fraction increased by +1.42 wt % per kJ/mol decrease of the Delta Hprot of the catalyst, while per degrees C temperature increase the yield of the same fraction increased by of + 0.46 wt%.Crude-Oil-to-Chemicals (COTC) is a novel concept in the oil industry in which the production of base chemicals is preferred over fuels. This concept requires an intensive integration of refinery and petrochemical operations and, in most cases, hydroconversion and steam cracking play an essential role. In the present work, particularly the role of hydroconversion is assessed in selected COTC scenarios via a simulation framework based on fundamental modeling that seamlessly integrates a Single-Event Microkinetics description of the cracking reactions with a molecular reconstruction strategy based on Shannon Entropy maximization for determining the detailed feedstock composition. Dealkylation and ring opening reactions have been identified as the crucial ones to produce good steam cracker feeds, i.e., mixtures of paraffins in the C3-C21 range, especially n-paraffins. Simulation results show that for a typical VGO paraffins yield in the desired fraction increases from 8.9% wt/wt to 19.6% wt/ wt with an increase of +5 kJ/mol in the acidity strength of the catalyst (Delta Hprot) and an increase of +10 degrees C in the operation temperature. In general, it was found that the yield of the total C3-C21 fraction increased by +1.42 wt % per kJ/mol decrease of the Delta Hprot of the catalyst, while per degrees C temperature increase the yield of the same fraction increased by of + 0.46 wt%.A