RU2340654C2 - Method and caustic reactor for heavy crude oil and product obtained from it - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: in the caustic reactor for hydrocarbons the source of oxygen and the source of hydrocarbons are burnt and the obtained synthetic gas is used for initiation of a gas-phase reaction for ennobling heavy crude oil.

EFFECT: ennobling reaction is quickly extinguished after initiation of the gas-phase reaction.

42 cl, 1 ex, 8 tbl, 11 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the refinement of heavy oil to light oil.

A significant portion of the world's oil reserves are bitumens, sometimes referred to as tar sands, and heavy crude oils (collectively, “heavy oil”). It is difficult to produce heavy oil, and after production it is difficult to find a place for it in the market. Whether pipelines or vehicles are used as a transport medium, the cost of transporting heavy oil is significantly higher than the cost of transporting light oil. After heavy oil is delivered to the receiving refinery, more expensive refining processes are needed to produce products suitable for commercial marketing. As a result, the economic value of heavy oil is lower than the value of light oil, and for this reason a significant percentage of the world's heavy oil reserves remain underutilized.

To alleviate this problem of underutilization, numerous methods are proposed for refining heavy oil. Although the terms “heavy oil” and “refinement” can be defined using various technical parameters, the parameter that is often used to characterize the quality of hydrocarbons is the density in degrees of the American Petroleum Institute (ANI). Heavy oil is characterized, in general, by a low value of the indicated density, for example, but without limitation, in the range from 5 to 25 degrees ANI. Light oils have higher values of the indicated densities, for example, in the range from 35 to 50 degrees ANI. The term "refinement" refers to a method of increasing a specified oil density from a relatively lower density to a relatively higher density in degrees ANI. For example, but without limitation, the quality of oil can be increased from 5 to 15 or from 30 to 40 degrees ANI. A refinement is a relative term and is not limited to a specific initial value or range of density values in degrees ANI or a specific final value or range of density in degrees ANI. Finally, the phrase “heavy oil refining reaction” refers generally to chemical reactions that are carried out in the process of refining heavy oil.

Heavy oil refining methods sometimes include pre-treatment steps to increase the effectiveness of the heavy oil refining reaction. For example, US Pat. No. 4,294,686 describes the preliminary distillation distillation of a heavy oil stream into a light oil fraction and a heavy oil fraction. The purpose of pre-distillation is to prevent unwanted cracking and cracking prior to coke of the light oil fraction, which can be carried out if such a fraction is present in the input stream to the refining reactor. The fraction of light oil, which is obtained, as a rule, is in a form satisfactory either for industrial use as a fuel or for transport to an oil refinery. However, pre-distillation adds both cost and complexity to the refinement of heavy oil in general and is only useful when it is known that heavy oil contains a significant amount of light hydrocarbons.

Other proposed refinement methods include a pretreatment step, mixing the oil additive with the heavy oil. Then the resulting mixture is introduced into the reactor for refining oil. For example, US patent No. 6059957 describes the creation of an emulsion by mixing heavy oil and water. This description also provides for the optional inclusion of a surfactant to stabilize the emulsion. US patent No. 6004453 describes the creation of a suspension by mixing non-catalytic additives with heavy oil. Publication Moll, J.K. and Ng, F.T.T., "A Novel Process for Upgrading Heavy Oil / Bitumen Emulsions Via In Situ Hydrogen", 16th World Petroleum Congress, Calgary, Canada, June 2000 describes the use of an emulsion of a water-soluble dispersed catalyst. However, each of these three methods has two common limitations. Firstly, the mixing stage adds both cost and complexity to the overall refinement of the oil. Secondly, additives cause the formation of waste materials during refining reactions, which must then be handled and disposed of appropriately. These treatment and disposal also add value and complexity.

A third set of heavy oil refining methods includes the step of using the reaction additive in the refining reactor to facilitate or improve the efficiency of the refining reaction. For example, Paez, R., Luzardo, L., and Guitian, J., “Current and Future Upgrading Options for Orinoco Heavy Crude Oils,” 16th World Petroleum Congress, Calgary, Canada, June 2000, describes the use of coke catalysts or iron in a refinement method. The publication of international application WO 00/61705 describes the use of non-catalytic heat carrier in the form of particles. US patent No. 5817229 describes the use of activated carbon in the absence of added hydrogen, both to reduce the content of undesirable minerals, and to refine the incoming feed materials. These methods have both limitations of the methods using oil additives discussed above, namely adding value and complexity and increasing requirements for processing waste materials.

In the hydrogenation process of US Pat. No. 5,069,775, hydrogen and heavy oil are reacted for five minutes to four hours in a preferred reaction temperature range of 800 to 900 ° F (427-482 ° C). US patent No. 5269909 describes a method in which a methane-rich gas is reacted with heavy oil for at least thirty minutes in a preferred temperature range of 380 to 420 ° C (716-788 ° F). In US Pat. No. 5,133,941, hydrogen and heavy oil flow through series-connected reaction passages in a preferred temperature range of 700 to 900 ° F. (371-482 ° C.). As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the limitation of these methods is that long, overall reaction times cause a significant increase in the generation of undesired waste materials, in particular pitch, coke and olefins. These materials impose significant requirements on processing equipment and, in addition, lead to a decrease in the efficiency of the equipment.

The publication of international application WO 00/18854 describes a two-stage process in which hydrogen gas is mixed with heavy oil in a manner that achieves a molecular level of hydrogen dispersion in heavy oil. The method has a first refinement reaction in which lighter hydrocarbons are separated from heavy oil, and continues as a second refinement reaction in a second reactor. The second refinement reaction further enhances the quality of the heavy oil through a hydrogenation reaction in a preferred temperature range from 343 to 510 ° C (650-950 ° F). The method includes an additional step comprising supplying external heat to the mixture of hydrogen and heavy oil to further facilitate the reaction in the second reactor. The disadvantages of this method are the difficulty of achieving the necessary uniform mixing of hydrogen and heavy oil, the cost and complexity of the implementation of the method, which requires two stages of the reaction.

These and other methods of refining oil have limitations affecting the industry. On the one hand, it is well known to those skilled in the art that oil refining reactions are preferably carried out at the highest possible reaction temperature, since oil refining methods are more effective at higher temperatures. Unfortunately, as is well known to those skilled in the art, high reaction temperatures can lead to significant undesired cracking and cracking of heavy oil molecules prior to coke if the reactions are not rapidly quenched. None of these methods has a quick quench mechanism, and, for this reason, they are limited to lower ranges of operating temperatures. However, on the other hand, at lower temperatures, the reaction time is longer, and it is well known that a long reaction also leads to undesired cracking and cracking prior to coke, and, in addition, to lower efficiency of the method due to the additional time required for gentrification. These methods are therefore limited by an intermediate temperature range, which is a compromise between these limitations.

The publication of international application WO 00/23540 describes a method in which a gas stream, consisting mainly of superheated steam, activates the refinement of heavy oil. The method has several limitations. The use of steam as a hydrogenation mechanism means that both hydrogen and oxygen-hydrogen radicals are generated in the refining reactions. As a result, fewer hydrogen molecules are available compared to methods in which hydrocarbon-based gases are predominantly used to saturate the carbon radicals generated by breaking the carbon bonds of heavy oil. In addition, a large volume of superheated steam is required. Since steam generation is endothermic, this limitation is expensive, has internal limitations and is initially inefficient, because fuel is used to generate steam, but the energy of this steam is only used passively in order to provide heat to refine heavy oil. Thus, energy losses occur both in the generation of steam and in passive refinement. This limits the effectiveness of the refinement method.

Another disadvantage of the method of this publication is that the binding of oxygen-hydrogen vapor radicals to the carbon radicals of heavy oil creates an output product in the form of an emulsion. Emulsions are a less desirable product in refineries due to the need for manipulations with the increased volume of water produced that occurs in the refining process. Emulsions also increase requirements in the reaction chamber to provide stabilization of the effluent. Since sock cameras cannot quickly quench enrichment reactions or actively monitor stabilization times, this leads to the formation of pitch and other undesirable waste materials.

Finally, this method is also the limited use of steam as the main source of hydrogenation for enrichment reactions. Steam causes adverse reactions that cannot be completely inhibited except for a narrow range of pressure and temperature conditions. Out of this range, unwanted gases and waste products are generated, and the output product suffers a loss of stability. As a result, reaction temperatures are generally limited to 500 ° C (932 ° F) or lower, which is another limitation of efficiency. For additional background, see US Pat. No. 4,298,457 to Oblad et al. and US patent No. 4415431, Matyas et al.

The technical result of the present invention is the creation of an effective method and reactor for refining heavy oil that does not require reaction additives, preventing unwanted cracking and cracking to coke heavy oil, minimizing the production of unwanted waste materials that do not require uniform dispersion of hydrogen or other incoming gas into heavy oil or relatively long exposure times for high temperatures of the incoming gas into heavy oil, carrying the process of refining oil at high temperatures and thereby contributing to a short reaction time and high refinement efficiency, having a direct mechanism for transferring incoming heat to heavy oil and an active mechanism for quickly quenching refining reactions.

This technical result is achieved in that the reactor for upgrading heavy oil contains: a reaction chamber for partial oxidation, suitable for generating synthetic gas containing hydrogen gas; a heavy oil refining reaction chamber comprising a high temperature reaction zone suitable for thermally cracking at least a portion of the heavy oil in the presence of synthesis gas at a temperature exceeding 1225 ° F for less than 10 seconds to form a thermally cracked oil; a quick quench zone suitable for quenching thermally cracked oil using a quenching heavy oil within 10 seconds of initiating thermal cracking of heavy oil in a high temperature reaction zone; a stabilization zone suitable for providing a residence time for thermally cracked oil from 1 to 60 minutes at a reduced temperature of less than 850 ° F to form a refined oil mixture; at least one outlet nozzle suitable for receiving synthesis gas formed in the partial oxidation reaction chamber and flowing through the outlet nozzle at a speed sufficient to discharge heavy oil from the heavy oil reaction chamber into the outlet nozzle, thereby bringing the synthesis gas into contact with at least a portion of heavy oil; and a passage suitable for recovering at least a portion of the refined oil mixture from the heavy oil refining reaction chamber.

The high temperature reaction zone can mainly be located in the outlet nozzle or completely located in the outlet nozzle.

The quick blanking zone can mainly be located in the exhaust nozzle.

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber can be adapted to internally recycle a mixture of thermally cracked oil and quenching heavy oil into an outlet nozzle, thereby allowing multiple passes of the recycled oil through the high temperature reaction zone of the heavy oil refining reaction chamber.

The exhaust nozzle can be adapted to pass through it more than 10 units of oil for each unit of fresh heavy oil entering the reaction chamber to refine heavy oil.

The partial oxidation reaction chamber may comprise an oxidizing reagent passage suitable for passing an oxidizing reagent consisting essentially of air into the partial oxidation reaction chamber.

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber can be adapted to operate at an internal pressure of 200 to 600 psi.

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber may be adapted to operate at a partial pressure of hydrogen gas from 40 to 120 psi.

The stabilization zone can be adapted to provide a residence time for thermally cracked oil from 20 to 50 minutes.

The high temperature reaction zone may be adapted to thermally crack at least a portion of the heavy oil in the presence of synthesis gas at a temperature in excess of 1225 ° F. for less than 2 seconds.

The reactor may contain multiple passages of exhaust nozzles.

The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that the method of refining heavy oil, providing at least 80 wt.% Liquid products, contains the following stages:

thermal cracking of the incoming oil containing heavy oil at a temperature above 1225 ° F for less than 10 seconds in the presence of a gas containing hydrogen to produce a thermally cracked oil product;

quenching the thermally cracked oil product within 10 seconds of initiating thermal cracking of the incoming oil by mixing the thermally cracked oil product with the quenching oil to form a quenched oil product;

stabilization of the slaked oil product at a temperature of less than 850 ° F. for 1 to 60 minutes to form a stabilized oil product.

The duration of the thermal cracking step may be less than 2 seconds.

The thermal cracking step may be essentially a gas phase thermal cracking reaction.

Extinguishing oil may contain heavy oil.

The method may further include creating a stream of fresh heavy oil arriving at a first specific mass flow rate.

The incoming oil for the thermal cracking step may comprise a recycled quenched oil product and / or a stabilized oil product.

The specific mass flow rate of the incoming oil at the thermal cracking stage may be at least 10 times greater than the first specific mass flow rate of the fresh heavy oil stream.

Oil can be upgraded to lighter oil both at the thermal cracking stage and at the stabilization stage.

At least 30 percent of the total upgrading of heavy oil can be done at the stabilization stage.

The method can provide less than 4 wt.% C ₁ -C ₄ hydrocarbons or less than 1 wt.% C ₁ -C ₄ hydrocarbons.

The quenched oil product can be stabilized within 20 to 50 minutes.

The gas containing hydrogen may be a synthetic gas, obtained mainly from air as an oxidizing agent and containing hydrogen gas.

The thermal cracking step can be carried out at a system pressure of 200 to 600 psi, or at a partial pressure of hydrogen gas of 40 to 120 psi.

The production of synthetic gas may additionally include the use of steam and gaseous hydrocarbons, while the molar ratio of steam to gaseous hydrocarbons is from 0.5: 1 to 2.0: 1.

The method can provide less than 1.0 wt.% Coke relative to the fresh incoming oil, or less than 0.5 wt.% Coke relative to the fresh incoming oil, or less than 0.1 wt.% Coke relative to fresh incoming oil.

The method may provide refinement of heavy oil at 1050 ° F greater than 30 wt.% Or greater than 35 wt.%.

The reaction intensity index of the stabilization step may be less than 300 seconds or less than 200 seconds.

The method can provide at least 90 wt.% Liquid products or at least 95 wt.% Liquid products.

The method may be a non-catalytic method.

The incoming oil may contain up to 5 wt.% Solid products.

The method may further include separating a heavy oil fraction from the stabilized oil product and recycling said heavy oil fraction to a thermal cracking step.

Extinguishing oil may contain gas oil.

The object of the present invention is also a stabilized oil product obtained using the method described above.

Features of the present invention will become clearer from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which depict the following:

figure 1 is a view in partial section of a variant of execution of the injection reactor, which can be used in variants of the method of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a heavy oil refining process of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a heavy oil refining process illustrated in FIG. 1 with a detailed illustration of a heat exchanger and separation equipment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart similar to FIG. 3, except that recycled unreacted heavy oil is added at the inlet of the injection reactor of the method of the present invention;

5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a partial oxidation reactor that can be used in the method of the present invention, with a detailed illustration of a heat exchanger and separation equipment;

Fig.6 is a flowchart of a method similar to Fig.5 with the addition of recycled residual gas as a starting material for a partial oxidation reactor;

Fig. 7 is a view of one embodiment of a combined reactor with two reaction chambers, comprising a partial oxidation reaction chamber and a heavy oil upgrading reaction chamber;

Fig. 8 is an inside view of the heavy oil refining reaction chamber shown in Fig. 7, viewed from below at the bottom of the heavy oil refining reaction chamber;

Fig.9 depicts a combined reactor with two reaction chambers of a pilot plant in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

figure 10 depicts a block diagram of a simplified method with a combined reactor, with two reaction chambers, a pilot plant, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

11 is a partial cross-sectional view of an embodiment of an injection that may be used in some embodiments of the method of the present invention.

Changes and modifications to the specifically described embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the attached claims.

The present invention is directed to upgrading heavy oils and is often referred to as a “Partial Crude Upgrading” (“PCU”) process. Embodiments of this method can alternatively refine the oil in one step without the need for pre-distillation or in oil additives or in reaction additives. These advantages increase simplicity and lower the cost of this method compared to previously proposed heavy oil refining technologies.

When implementing the method of partial refinement of oil, heavy oil is quickly heated, while quickly breaking the carbon bonds in the molecules of heavy oil. This characteristic reduces the time required for the refinement process as a whole, and increases the efficiency of all refinement equipment. Reactions can be quickly quenched with unreacted, in other words, unrefined heavy oil. This active quenching technology reduces both the amount of cracking to coke, which usually occurs when enrichment reactions are not quickly controlled, and the production of other undesirable waste materials.

In one embodiment, the refinement reaction for the process is initiated by injecting compressed air and fuel mixture into the reactor vessel. Exceptionally high reaction temperatures are obtained when these gases are ignited using igniters in injectors. These temperatures arise due to an exothermic reaction that releases a large amount of energy for the evaporation of heavy oil molecules and the cracking of molecular bonds in them. The refinement of heavy oil takes place by exposing heavy oil molecules to the energy released through an exothermic reaction. Exothermic energy generation is an aspect of the present invention compared to the methods used previously, since this provides an increased amount of energy for breaking molecular bonds in heavy oil.

The energy of the oil refining process is due to the partial oxidation of compressed air with the fuel mixture. Compressed air acts as an oxidizing agent, and the fuel mixture as a source of hydrogen in the reaction, which creates a synthetic gas, referred to as synthetic gas. The creation of synthetic gas provides an opportunity for exothermic creation of high temperatures for the refining reaction and reduces the refining reaction times in comparison with previously proposed refining technologies. Synthetic gas also contains reactive gaseous components that facilitate the refining reaction, and preferably generates an excess of hydrogen radicals to bind to carbon radicals formed in the refining reactions. The presence of carbon radicals associated with hydrogen rather than with other undesirable radicals, the result that is usually obtained when using gases that consist mainly of superheated steam, reduces the likelihood that the output will be an undesirable emulsion or that coke, pitch and unstable olefins.

Gaseous hydrocarbons, such as natural gas, are preferred fuels for generating synthetic gas due to the high concentration of hydrogen in them. However, when generating synthetic gas, either liquid fuels or heavy oil feedstocks can be used. In addition, either air enriched in air (i.e., air enriched with additional oxygen) or pure oxygen can be used as an oxygen source. The reactor vessel, within which cracking and quenching of heavy oil takes place, can operate at pressures below 700 psi (4.928 kPa), and more preferably, can operate at pressures below 500 psi (h. ) (2,859 kPa).

Reactions can be quenched in the same reactor vessel using unreacted heavy oil that is at a temperature lower than refined heavy oil. Extinguishing is carried out shortly after exposure to heavy oil for synthesis gas. Monitoring the pressure in the reactor and the flow rate of air, fuel, and unreacted heavy oil provides a way to control the rate at which reactions are quenched. Alternatively, recycled gas oil or gas oil from an external source may be used to quench the reaction product. For example, gas oils with a boiling range of 300-1050 ° F (149-566 ° C), alternatively 350-750 ° F (177-399 ° C), can be used.

The method of partial refinement of oil facilitates the synergy between the combination of fuel and heat and industrial equipment. The fuel gas obtained by this method can be used to generate high pressure steam, which can be used, for example, to facilitate the production of heavy oil or to preheat the starting materials for the reactor vessel. Alternatively, fuel gas may be supplied to gas turbines to generate energy for supplying industrial equipment.

Figure 1 shows an injection reactor 14, which consists of external walls 32, an upper wall 41 and a lower wall 45, with a burner injector 30 centered inside the injection reactor 14. The embodiment of Figure 1 is simplified solely for the purpose of description. For example, the injector burner 30 is depicted on an enlarged scale compared to the injection reactor 14. As is clear to those skilled in the art, one or more burner injectors may be used in the injection reactor 14 to achieve generally uniform enrichment and quenching reactions, and the spatial proportions of the injector-burner 30 with respect to the injection reactor 14 will be determined by the estimated throughput of the refining equipment.

The embodiment of the injector burner 30 in FIG. 1 is similar to an exhaust type mixing nozzle, which is preferably made of high temperature resistant alloys, and is connected to a centrally located igniter 42. The injector burner 30 comprises an injector wall 34 and an injector base 36. The injector base 36 is connected to the injector wall 34 via injector posts 38. In this embodiment, the injector base 36 is connected to the bottom wall 45 of the injection reactor 14 by a threaded connection. It is clear that the method of the present invention is not limited to the use of a threaded connection or the connection of an injector-burner 30 on the basis of the injection reactor 14, or the arrangement of the inlets 47 and 49, which provide the incoming and outgoing flow in the upper and lower parts of the injection reactor 14, respectively, and that the geometry of FIG. 1 is selected for illustrative purposes only. An injector passage 40 is centrally located at the base of the injector 36. The ignitor 42, in turn, is located centrally in the passage 40 of the injector.

Heated compressed air 12 enters the reaction chamber 44 through an annular air inlet 39 created between the injector passage 40 and the ignitor 42. The ignitor 42 may be any hot-surface igniter or a spark igniter that provides reliable ignition of the gases. The heated fuel mixture 9 enters the reaction chamber 44 through the annular fuel inlet 37 created between the injector base 36 and the injector passage 40. Heavy oil enters the reaction chamber 44 through the inlet slots 35, which are openings between the injector posts 38, allowing oil to pass from the outer annular passage 33 between the outer wall 32 and the burner injector 30 into the reaction chamber 44.

The tip 43 of the ignitor 42 ignites the heated compressed air 12 and the heated fuel mixture 9 to create a high-temperature synthetic gas in the lower part of the reaction chamber 44 near the struts 38. The heated heavy oil 2 flows into the injection reactor 14 through the inlets 47 in the lower wall 45 and enters the reaction chamber 44 through the inlet slots 35 of the injector-burner 30 and in contact with high-temperature synthetic gas, it quickly undergoes a refinement of heavy oil in the reaction chamber 44. The flow of heated heavy oil 2 through the inlet slot 35 occurs because produces force generated pulse generated by the ignition of gases that generates the syngas. A quick refinement of heavy oil occurs primarily due to the evaporation of part of the heated heavy oil 2, when heated compressed air 12 and heated fuel mixture 9 are ignited, however, the refinement of heavy oil will also be carried out in any unevaporated heavy oil in the reaction chamber 44. Like evaporated and any unevaporated refined heavy oil exits the reaction chamber 44 into the mixing chamber 46, which is an open area in the injection reactor 14 below the upper wall 4 1, but above the injector-burner 30. To prevent undesirable secondary reactions, the heavy oil refining reaction is quickly quenched by mixing the effluent from the reaction chamber 44 with additional heated heavy oil 2 in the mixing chamber 46. Additional heated heavy oil 2 passes through the annular passage 33 reactor into mixing chamber 46. Alternatively, recycled gas oil or gas oil from an external source can be used to quench the reaction product. For example, gas oils with a boiling range of 300-1050 ° F (149-566 ° C), alternatively 350-750 ° F (177-399 ° C), can be used. The resulting refined oil mixture 3 exits the top wall 41 of the injection reactor 14 through outlet 49 under pressure after being in the mixing chamber 46 for preferably 1 to 60 minutes, and more preferably 2 to 20 minutes, which further stabilizes the refined oil mixture 3 . The injection reactor 14 may operate at moderate pressures, typically below 700 psi (4.928 kPa), and preferably below 400 psi (2.889 kPa).

Synthetic gas generated in reaction chamber 44 will generally have a temperature above 1200 ° F (649 ° C) or 1225 ° F (662 ° C), preferably in the range from 1200 to 3000 ° F (649-1649 ° C) or from 1225 to 3000 ° F (662-1649 ° C), and more preferably in the range from 1400 to 2400 ° F (760-1316 ° C), for quickly refining heated heavy oil 2. Natural gas is the preferred fuel for generating synthetic gas due to its high hydrogen content. The term natural gas refers generally to gaseous mixtures of hydrocarbons, for example, containing components such as methane, ethane and propane. Natural gas may also contain sulfur and trace amounts of various metals. However, any source of fuel containing hydrogen, such as liquefied petroleum gas or naphtha, can be used as fuel for generating synthetic gas. Alternatively, heavy feedstocks, such as heavy crude oil itself, residual oil products and coke, can be used to generate synthetic gas for refining.

The reaction time in the reaction chamber 44 will preferably be 10 seconds or less, and more preferably less than 2 seconds, to limit secondary cracking reactions. The speeds of the heated fuel mixture 9 and heated compressed air 12 in the reaction chamber 44 should preferably be relatively high to prevent damage to the injector burner 30 due to the combustion reaction in which the synthesis gas is generated. A minimum speed of 10 ft / s (3 m / s) is preferred, although lower speeds may be used depending on the alloy from which the injector burner 30 is made. Depending on the speeds used, the reaction zone of the heavy oil upgrading reaction may extend above the bottom of the reaction chamber 44 and possibly into chamber 46.

A preferred injector burner is an exhaust nozzle type, as shown in FIG. 1, which has a conical shape to facilitate ignition of both heated compressed air 12 and heated fuel mixture 9, and cracking the molecular bonds of heavy oil. In the design of FIG. 1, with a centrally located igniter installed in the injection nozzle, the partial oxidation reaction is supposed to be carried out primarily in the center of the reaction chamber 44, with a portion of the heated heavy oil 2 passing along the inner surface of the injector wall 34, thereby serving as a protective film for the inner surface of the injector wall 34.

It is clear that the injector 30 and the ignitor 42 are not necessarily limited to the geometry of the embodiment depicted in FIG. Although a coaxial annular type injector is preferred to achieve rapid ignition of the fuel-air mixture and to prevent flame back impact, any injector ignitor that is capable of generating syngas without damaging the injector can be used in this embodiment. In addition, instead of introducing heated compressed air 12 and heated fuel mixture 9 through concentric circular holes in the base 36 of the injector, separate inlet pipelines may be used for heated compressed air 12 and heated fuel mixture 9 to enter reaction chamber 44. In the same way, the heated heavy oil 2 can flow through a separate non-concentric input system. Depending on the geometry and length of the injector wall 34, the heated heavy oil 2 may enter the upper part of the reaction chamber 44 through slots in the upper part of the injector wall 34, thereby further facilitating the quenching of the reaction. Not each of the examples of this paragraph is depicted in figure 1, but they will be clear to experts in this field, who will also see other examples of the use of the respective injector burners, based on the concepts of the present description.

The injection nozzle 80 shown in FIG. 11 can be used where syngas is generated in a separate partial oxidation reaction chamber and transported to a separate heavy oil refining reaction chamber, as described in more detail below. The main difference between the injection nozzle 80 in FIG. 11 and the nozzle in FIG. 1 is that the injection nozzle 80 in FIG. 11 does not contain an igniter and separate inlet passages for fuel and oxidizer, as in the nozzle 30 shown in FIG. 1 . The nozzle 80 in FIG. 11 contains one synthesis gas passage 82 to a point where such syngas comes into contact with heavy oil entering through inlet slots 35, which are openings between the injector posts 38.

In another embodiment, the heavy oil refining reactor consists of two reaction chambers. The partial oxidation reaction chamber is designed to generate a gas containing hydrogen, for example synthetic gas, and the heavy oil refining reaction chamber is designed to refine heavy oil. In one embodiment, both reaction chambers are combined.

7 depicts one embodiment of a combined heavy oil upgrading reactor 300. The partial oxidation reaction chamber 120 may be a lower section and have a refractory lining 130. In the partial oxidation reaction chamber 120, syngas can be generated from a hydrocarbon fuel source 171, air 172, and optionally steam. The upper section may be a heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110, in which the quality of the heavy oil 111 is improved, and it may have a refractory lining 353. The two reaction chambers may be connected through one or multiple passages 310 to the refractory lining 330.

Synthetic gas may be generated in the partial oxidation reaction chamber 120 by burning hydrocarbon fuel 171 together with an oxidizing agent, such as air 172. The partial oxidation reaction may alternatively include the addition of steam. Alternatively, synthesis gas may be generated from the partial oxidation of a mixture of hydrocarbon fuel 171 and steam using air 172 under pressure. A mixture of hydrocarbon fuel 171 and steam can be preheated to a temperature in the range 300-1500 ° F (149-816 ° C), alternatively 350-1000 ° F (149-538 ° C) or 400-600 ° F (204 -316 ° C). Compressed air or, alternatively, enriched air may be preheated to 200-1500 ° F (93-816 ° C), or, alternatively, to 225-1000 ° F (107-538 ° C), or up to 250-750 ° F (121-399 ° C) before reacting with hydrocarbon fuel 171 and steam in the reaction chamber 120 for partial oxidation. Alternatively, part of the inlet steam may be introduced into the compressed air injection system. As previously discussed, the oxidizing reagent may be, for example, air, enriched air or pure oxygen, and the fuel may be any gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon, but is preferably natural gas. For example, the hydrocarbon fuel may be natural gas, liquefied natural gas, light naphtha, naphtha or distillate fuel. In one embodiment, the partial oxidation reaction can be carried out using air alone as the oxidizing agent, thereby reducing the cost of the oxidizing agent as compared to enriched air or pure oxygen. In addition, the partial oxidation reaction can be carried out with the addition of a smaller amount of steam than is used in other systems, thereby reducing the amount of wastewater produced by the process as a whole and resulting in a higher temperature of the synthesis gas. In some embodiments, the molar ratio of steam to hydrocarbon fuel may range from 0.25: 1 to 10: 1. Alternatively, the molar ratio of steam to fuel may be from 0.25: 1 to 3: 1, 0.3: 1 to 2.5: 1, 5: 1 to 2: 1, or 0.75: 1 to 1.5: 1 .

A plurality of injectors 170 may be used to introduce hydrocarbon fuel 171, steam, and air 172 into the partial oxidation reaction chamber 120. It is preferable to use mechanical mixing injectors to achieve a lower flame temperature and to adapt the partial oxidation to the compact size of the reaction chamber 120. Each mechanical mixing injector may optionally comprise a plurality of holes for introducing a plurality of mechanical mixing nozzles into the partial oxidation reaction chamber 120. An ignition system, such as an ignitor 320, may be integrated into the chamber 120 to initiate a partial oxidation reaction. The igniter 320 may be, for example, a spark igniter or a hot surface igniter.

Since the partial oxidation reactor chamber is capable of operating at a steam: fuel ratio of about 1: 1, air can be used as an oxidizing agent, while still achieving a synthesis gas temperature above 1200 ° F (649 ° C) or 1225 ° F ( 662 ° C). In alternative embodiments, the temperature of the synthesis gas may be in the range of 1200 to 3000 ° F (649-1649 ° C), 1225-3000 ° F (662-1649 ° C), or in the range of 1400 to 2400 ° F (760-1316 ° C) Embodiments of the partial oxidation reaction may be carried out at a pressure below 700 psi (4.928 kPa), and more preferably below 500 psi (3.549 kPa).

Synthetic gas may be transported to the heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 through one or more passages 310, which may have a refractory lining 330. Each passage 310 provided with a refractory lining 330 may be connected to a column 340 to connect an outlet nozzle 190. The posts 340 may be mounted on a steel support a plate 355, which can be welded to the shell 351 of the reaction chamber 120. The base plate can be bent at an angle to allow thermal expansion. Column 340 may include an internal passage and may also have a refractory lining to withstand operation at high temperatures. The inlet assembly 350 of the exhaust nozzle 190, into which the synthetic gas is introduced, preferably has a refractory lining for continuous operation. High temperature alloys can be used as the structural material of exhaust nozzles 190 without protection by ceramic lining when the temperature of the synthesis gas is below about 2000 ° F (1093 ° C).

In one embodiment, the exhaust nozzles 190 end in a reaction chamber 110 for refining heavy oil. Outlet nozzles 190 may be wholly or partially located inside the reaction chamber 110 for refining heavy oil. In one embodiment, the reaction chamber 110 may comprise three zones. The high temperature reaction zone 360 brings the incoming heavy oil into contact with the hot synthesis gas at a temperature in excess of 1200 ° F (649 ° C), or alternatively in excess of 1225 ° F (662 ° C), in less than 10 seconds or, alternatively, less than 2 seconds. In alternative embodiments, the temperature of the high temperature reaction zone 360 may range from 1200 to 3000 ° F (649-1649 ° C), from 1225 to 3000 ° F (662 ° C-1649 ° C), or from 1400 to 2400 ° F (from 760 to 1316 ° C). The high temperature reaction zone 360 may be wholly substantially or partially located in the exhaust nozzle 190.

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 may also include a quick quench zone 361, in which thermally cracked oil from the high temperature reaction zone 360 is quickly quenched as its temperature decreases and the fast high temperature thermal cracking of the incoming heavy oil is completed. In the quick quench zone 361, the temperature of the thermally cracked oil drops from more than 1200 ° F (649 ° C) or, alternatively, more than 1225 ° F (662 ° C) to less than 850 ° F (454 ° C) and alternatively less than 800 ° F (427 ° C) within 10 seconds of initiating high temperature thermal cracking of the incoming heavy oil. The quick quench zone 361 may be mainly or partially located in the outlet nozzle 190 and mainly partially or completely outside the nozzle 190 in the heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110. In one embodiment, unreacted heavy oil may serve as a quenching medium. In one embodiment, the quenching medium is an unevaporated, unreacted, colder heavy oil, which is part of the heavy oil entering the exhaust nozzle 190, but not coming into close contact with the hot syngas and therefore unevaporated. Cooler, unreacted incoming heavy oil can flow along the inner wall of the exhaust nozzle 190 and for this reason avoid close contact with the synthesis gas. Alternatively, recycled gas oil or gas oil from an external source may be used to quench the reaction product. For example, gas oils with boiling points in the range of 300-1050 ° F (149-566 ° C), alternatively 350 -750 ° F (177-399 ° C), can be used.

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 may also contain a stabilization zone 362 in which the cooled thermally cracked oil mixed with the quenching medium is allowed to stabilize for 1 to 60 minutes, alternatively 20 to 50 minutes. Stabilization zone 362 may operate below 850 ° F (454 ° C) and, alternatively, below 800 ° F (427 ° C) or 740-790 ° F (393-421 ° C), so that quick thermal cracking is reduced or eliminated. However, stabilization zone 362 may further facilitate the refinement of the oil. In embodiments of the present invention, stabilization zone 362 may provide more than 30 percent, alternatively, more than 40 or 50 percent of the entire heavy oil conversion process. Conversion is defined as wt.% Of the starting material processed in a method that boils at a temperature above 1050 ° F and which is converted to a material that boils below 1050 ° F. That is, refinement or transformation is defined as

Conversion = ((% mass starting material, 1050 ° F +) - (% mass product, 1050 ° F +)) / (% mass starting material, 1050 ° F +).

Temperature and residence time affect the stability and refinement of oil in stabilization zone 362. The reaction rate index (RSI _{875 ° F} ), based on a reference temperature of 875 ° F (468 ° C), can be used to track the effect of residence time on the stability of refined oil. This index is defined as

RSI _{875 ° F} = (stabilization time) xe ^{(E / R) (1 / (875 + 460) -1 / (T + 460))}

where (stabilization time) is measured in seconds

E = activation energy (calorie / mol) R = universal gas constant (calorie / (mol- ° K) T = reaction temperature (° F)

In embodiments of the present invention, an RSI _{875 ° F of} refined crude oil may be maintained below 300 seconds and, alternatively, below 250, 200 or 150 seconds. In embodiments of the present invention, an RSI _{875 ° F of} refined crude oil may be maintained above 5 seconds and, alternatively, above 10 or 20 seconds. For this reason, the volume of stabilization zone 362 may be selected in order to ensure the stability of the refined crude oil. Alternatively, water 370 may be injected into either the stabilization zone 362 or the outlet pipe 119 of the reactor to further cool the refined crude oil. In the case of water injection, it is desirable to cool the refined crude oil to below 750 ° F (399 ° C), and more preferably below 700 ° F (371 ° C).

The heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 may operate at various pressures in excess of 1000 psi, or under low pressure conditions. At low pressures, the heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 operates at a pressure below 700 psi (4.928 kPa) or below 500 psi (3.549 kPa). The heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 may alternatively operate in a range of 200 psi (1480 kPa) to 600 psi (4.238 kPa). In such an operation, the partial pressure of hydrogen in the reaction chamber may range from 20 psi (138 kPa) to 200 psi (1379 kPa), or alternatively from 40 psi (abs.) (276 kPa) to 120 psi (abs.) (827 kPa), or 40 psi (abs.) (276 kPa) to 115 psi inch (abs.) (793 kPa).

Preheated heavy oil 111 may enter the heavy oil refining reaction chamber 110 through a plurality of inlets 371 located at the bottom of chamber 110. FIG. 8 depicts three heavy oil inlets 371a, 371b, 371c located at an angle of 120 ° to each other, however, the number of these inputs for heavy oil is not limited to three. Alternatively, an internal distribution pipe system may be used at the bottom of the reaction chamber 110 to refine heavy oil to uniformly distribute incoming heavy oil. The temperature of the preheated heavy oil 111a, 111b, 111c may vary, but is preferably between 300 and 800 ° F (149 and 427 ° C), and more preferably between 400 and 600 ° F (204 and 316 ° C).

The force of natural attraction and the release force created by the injected synthetic gas in the exhaust nozzle can move a portion of 20-50% of the preheated heavy oil in the exhaust nozzles through openings located near the bottom of the nozzles. This part of the heavy oil rapidly crackes and evaporates after it comes in contact with the hot synthetic gas in the interior of the exhaust nozzles. It is likely that a certain amount of heavy oil flowing upward along the inner wall of the exhaust nozzles will undergo cracking reactions in the liquid phase; however, it is assumed that most of the heavy oil in the exhaust nozzles passes through cracking reactions in the gas phase. Hydrogen in the synthesis gas performs the function of trapping radicals, minimizing the retrogressive reactions that form coke. The residence time of the gas phase cracking reactions is preferably less than 10 seconds, and more preferably less than 2 seconds, in order to minimize the yield of light gaseous hydrocarbons. Cracked products leave the nozzles and immediately come into contact with the remaining 50-80% of the heavy oil and / or recycled, cooled thermally cracked oil, which bypasses the exhaust nozzles. Cracked products are mixed with bypassed heavy oil under the influence of turbulence forces and are rapidly cooled in the zone of rapid quenching of the reaction chamber for refining heavy oil. Rapid quenching of cracked products will minimize secondary cracking reactions and cracking prior to coke. Above the quick quench zone is a stabilization zone where the cracked products are completely mixed with unreacted heavy oil and chemical equilibrium is achieved.

Alternatively, all incoming heavy oil, along with a number of fluids contained in the heavy oil refining reaction chamber (e.g., chilled thermally cracked oil, quenched oil and / or stabilized oil), can enter the exhaust nozzle by creating a powerful outlet force by flow with high speed synthetic gas in the exhaust nozzle. In this embodiment, the mixture of incoming heavy oil and other reactor fluids may serve as a quenching medium within the outlet nozzle. In various embodiments, the amount of fluid recirculated to the reaction chamber discharged to the outlet nozzle can be varied by adjusting the speed of the synthetic gas in the outlet nozzle and by adjusting the flow rates of fresh heavy oil and recovering the stabilized oil product. Thus, uncracked or partially cracked heavy oil can be recycled several times through the outlet nozzle and the high temperature reaction zone for further refinement. In various embodiments, the total rate of entry into the outlet nozzle (s) may be 2, 5, or 10 times, or more, greater than the rate at which fresh heavy oil enters the reaction chamber of the heavy oil.

Various embodiments of the present invention provide a method that provides a lower yield of gaseous light hydrocarbons than other available methods. For example, embodiments of the present invention may produce less than 4% by weight gaseous C ₁ -C ₄ . Alternatively, embodiments of the present invention produce less than 3, 2 or 1% by weight gaseous C ₁ -C ₄ . In addition to this, embodiments of the present invention produce less than 2% by weight coke, alternatively, less than 1% by weight, less than 0.5% by weight, or less than 0.1% by weight of coke.

Figure 2 depicts a simplified diagram of a method according to one of the embodiments of the present invention, which can be used in conjunction with the various configurations of the reactor discussed here. The heavy crude oil 1 from any source is preheated in a heat exchanger 13 to generate heated heavy oil 2, which is introduced into the injection reactor 14 or, alternatively, into the reaction chamber for refining the heavy oil. The temperature of the heated heavy oil 2 is preferably low enough to minimize thermal cracking of the oil molecules, and for most heavy oils it will be in the range of 300 to 800 ° F (149-427 ° C), and more preferably 400 to 700 ° F (204-371 ° C).

Air 10 is compressed in the air compressor 15. Compressed air 11 is heated in the furnace 17, preferably to a temperature between 200 and 1000 ° F (93-538 ° C), and more preferably between 250 and 800 ° F (121-427 ° C) Then, the heated compressed air 12 enters the injection reactor 14. As noted above, other sources of oxygen molecules can be used. It will be understood that the preheating of heavy crude oil 1 or compressed air 11 is not a requirement of the present invention, but is preferable to improve the efficiency of the refinement reaction. Steam 7 is created by heating the water 6 coming from the boiler in the furnace 17. Natural gas 5 is mixed with the steam 7 in the mixer 16 and heated in the furnace 17 to a temperature preferably between 300 and 1000 ° F (149-538 ° C). The resulting heated fuel mixture 9 enters the injection reactor 14 or, alternatively, into the reaction chamber to refine the heavy oil of the two-chamber reactor.

As described above in connection with FIG. 1, ignition of heated compressed air 12 and heated fuel mixture 9 in the presence of heated heavy oil 2 can be used to initiate a refining reaction, or synthetic gas can be generated in a separate partial oxidation reaction chamber and transported hot in a separate reaction chamber for refining heavy oil, as described here. In a first embodiment of the reactor, it is preferable if the plurality of injector burners 30 are evenly distributed within the injection reactor 14 to achieve maximum productivity and efficiency of the refining equipment. The exact number of injector burners 30 will depend on the size of the injection reactor 14 and the desired throughput of the refining equipment. Also as described above, the output of the injection reactor 14 is a refined petroleum mixture 3.

A small amount of solid materials, preferably less than five percent by weight, may optionally be mixed (not shown) with the heated heavy oil 2 before entering the injection reactor 14 or, alternatively, into the reaction chamber to refine the heavy oil of a two-chamber reactor to control possible deposition in the injection reactor 14. These solid products can be either inert, such as sand, or reactive, such as coal.

In the present embodiment, the refined oil mixture 3 is used as a heat source for the heat exchanger 13. Then, the cooled refined heavy oil 4 is fed to a conventional separator 18, which produces a crude oil product 21, fuel gas 19, sulfur product 20 and waste water 2.

For a complete understanding of the present invention, it is useful to compare the method of partial refinement of oil with methods for improving the quality of heavy oil proposed earlier. Many of the previously proposed methods are directed to a liquid-phase refining reaction of heavy oil, in which the molecular bonds in the heavy oil in the liquid phase are broken, and the resulting carbon radicals are combined with available hydrogen radicals to create a stabilized, refined heavy oil.

In contrast, one of the embodiments of the partial refinement method is directed primarily to the gas-phase refinement reaction of heavy oil. Specifically, the heat released during the formation of the synthetic gas evaporates part of the heavy oil, thereby making it possible to carry out a gas-phase reaction for the refinement of heavy oil. This evaporation and gas-phase reaction is carried out much faster than what happens in the liquid-phase reaction, and the hydrogen in the synthetic gas is simultaneously available for binding to carbon atoms of heavy oils. Although this method can be carried out at high pressures, high pressures are not necessary to facilitate this gas-phase reaction, thereby making it possible to use lower pressures, if desired. In addition, in the gas phase, hydrogen and carbon molecules more easily bind, further contributing to a reduction in the time of the refinement reaction and the high efficiency of the refinement method.

Since the gas-phase ennobling reaction by the indicated method is carried out quickly, it is also necessary to quickly quench the ennobled heavy oil. Since the temperature difference between the refined evaporated heavy oil and the non-refined heavy oil is large, the additional refined heavy oil quickly dampens the refining reaction and thereby prevents the generation of unwanted waste materials. In liquid-phase technologies, the temperature difference is much smaller, and for this reason the reactions in these technologies cannot be quenched as quickly, and unwanted waste materials cannot be eliminated to the same extent as in the PCU method.

Embodiments of the present invention can provide advantages using currently available components to facilitate the manufacture of reliable heavy oil refining equipment. For example, nozzles that have long been used to circulate and mix fluids in closed and open tanks can be used. One example of nozzles that can be used or modified to suit the burner injector or exhaust nozzle used in embodiments of the present invention are TurboMix ™ products from BETE Fog Nozzle, Inc. of Greenfield, MA. Similarly, the ignitor 42 used in some embodiments of the present invention may be based on hot-surface ignitors that have long been used in gas appliances. For example, the MINI-IGNITER product line from Saint-Goban / Advanced Ceramics-Norton Igniter of Milford, MA can be modified to suit the needs of the PCU process. The advantages of hot-surface ignitors over spark-type ignitors are lower power requirements and safer operation. The ability of the present invention to build on currently available technologies and constituent parts - in each case from different and previously unrelated industries - is a unique characteristic of the partial refinement method and an important advantage over previously proposed heavy oil refinement methods.

Given the differences between the partial refinement method and the previously described methods, the authors are not bound by any specific physical, chemical or mechanical theory of work. The authors cite these theories in an attempt to explain why and how the present invention is supposed to work. These theories are provided for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as limiting in any way the true meaning and scope of the present invention.

The second embodiment of the method of partial refinement of oil is depicted in figure 3. This embodiment illustrates the refinement efficiency that is associated with the application of this method. In Fig. 3, the operation of a heat exchanger 13, an injection reactor 14, or, alternatively, a reaction chamber for refining heavy oil of a two-chamber reactor, an air compressor 15, a mixer 16, and a furnace 17 is as described above.

In this configuration, the refined oil mixture 3 enters the second heat exchanger 50 for additional cooling before entering the gas and liquid phases separator 51 after cooling the refined heavy oil 4. The effectiveness of this option is that the water 6 coming from the boiler can be used as a cooling medium for the heat exchanger 50, while the heated water 23, which enters the boiler, then enters the furnace 17. As a result, a second source of water for the furnace appears 17, to generate steam 7 or, alternatively, to generate a separate supply 24 of high pressure steam for applications such as enhanced oil production.

The gases separated in the gas and liquid phase separator 51 are guided through an expansion device, such as a Joule-Thomson valve 53, and a mixer 54 before entering gas 67 into the gas treatment unit 57. The output of the gas treatment plant 57 is fuel gas 19 and sulfur product 20. In this embodiment, the sulfur product 20 is most likely to be gaseous hydrogen sulfide, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. As a result, the crude oil product 21 will have a lower sulfur content than heavy oil 1. Another efficiency of the present embodiment is that the fuel gas 19 can be used as an energy source for the furnace 17 and, or as an alternative, as an energy source for power generating turbines 60.

The liquids separated in the separator 51 of the gaseous and liquid phases are guided through an expansion device 52 for generating a liquid product 66, which enters the liquid separator 55. Wastewater 22, if generated, originates from a liquid separator 55. Any additional gas 74 not previously separated is sent to a mixer 59, where it is mixed with the gas recovered from the separation column 58. This mixture is compressed in the residual gas compressor 56 and introduced into the mixer 54. Hydrocarbon liquids 65 from the separator 55 are sent to the separation column 58 to generate a crude oil product 21.

A simulation of the process is carried out for the partial refinement method. Various process simulation programs are commercially available; one example is the HYSYS ™ program, version 2.2, a product of Hyprotech Ltd., a subsidiary of AEA Technology plc. Other such programs are known to those skilled in the art. Table 1 lists typical operating temperatures, pressures, and flow rates at various stages of the process, and it refers to the items shown in FIG. 3. For simplicity, the simulation results of the process shown in Table 1 use the proposed mixture of heavy paraffins and sulfur-containing paraffin compounds to represent heavy oil 1. Specifically, heavy oil is supposed to be a mixture of 50% nC ₃₀ H ₆₂ and 50% nC ₃₀ H ₆₁ SH. Simulation assumes that 40% of the incoming heavy oil stream interacts with synthetic gas to complete conversion to cracked products through the following two reactions:

1) nC ₃₀ H ₆₁ SH + H ₂ → nC ₃₀ H ₆₂ + H ₂ S

2) nC ₃₀ H ₆₂ + x H ₂ → Cracked products

Cracked foods are supposed to be a mixture of compounds having individual sequences of carbon atoms ranging from 1 to 22 carbon molecules in length. The estimated chemical cracking mechanism produces 6.6% of gases with one to four carbon molecules, and the total hydrogen consumption is 268 cubic feet / barrel. Sensitivity studies are carried out for mixtures with estimated carbon sequences ranging from 1 to 28 molecules in length, with a gas yield after cracking of 4.7% and with a total hydrogen consumption of 230 cubic feet / barrel without significant differences from the results below .

Simulation suggests that 10% of the carbon monoxide in the synthesis gas interacts with water to form additional hydrogen molecules to bind to the radicals of heavy oil. Simulation suggests that unreacted 60% of the heavy oil input stream is used to quench the gentrification reaction.

The simulation results in table 1 demonstrate the advantages of the partial refinement of oil. The ratio of steam 7 to natural gas 5, equal to 0.6, is lower than that required in the previously described heavy oil refining technologies. As a result, this method generates a low volume of wastewater 22. In addition, the crude oil product 21 does not suffer output volume reductions that are typical of many heavy oil refining technologies. Crude oil product 21, which consists of a mixture of 61.8% (molar percent) of the components of cracked heavy oil and 38.2% of uncracked heavy oil, is refined at 6.8 degrees ANI, compared to heavy oil 1.

Table 1
The simulation results for implementing the method of partial refinement of oil, shown in figure 3 The material involved in the method Flow volume The volume of flow, Kgmol / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure, kPa Oil Quality ANI Heavy oil 1 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 199.5 93.1 169 1,165 32.8 Natural gas 5 entering the mixer 16 9.1 megacub.ft / day 453.6 80 26.7 178.5 1,231 Par 7 10,810 lbs / hour 272.2 372.8 189.3 178.5 1,231 Hot water 23 entering the boiler 551,000 lbs / hour 13,870 357.2 180.7 1520 10,480 Heated compressed air 12 96,400 lbs / hour 1,518 1050 565.6 177 1,220 Heated fuel mixture 9 27,830 lbs / hour 725.8 1050 565.6 177 1,220 Synthetic gas generated in the injection reactor 14 124,230 lbs / hour 2,768 2237 1,225 167 1,151 Heated Heavy Oil 2c 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 500 260 167 1,151 Refined Heavy Oil 3 635,400 lbs / hour 3,295 752.8 400,2 160 1,103 Chilled Refined Heavy Oil 4 635,400 lbs / hour 3,295 120 48.9 112.5 776 Liquid Product 66 507,600 lbs / hour 1,255 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Sulfur Crude Oil 65 40.840 barrel / day 846.1 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Natural gas 5 entering the separation column 58 910 kilo cubic feet / day 45.4 69.2 20.7 15.8 109 Gas 67 135,600 lbs / hour 2,147 110 43.3 45 310 Wastewater 22 991 barrels / day 363.6 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Exhaust gas from the furnace 17 279 megacub.ft / day 13,880 505.8 263.2 14.8 102 Crude oil product 21 40.620 barrel / day 829.3 117.4 47.4 15.8 109 39.6

FIG. 4 depicts an embodiment of a partial refinement method similar to that of FIG. 3, except that the distillation column 62 is used in place of the separation column 58 and a portion of the unreacted heavy oil 25 is recycled back to the injection reactor 14 by mixing with the heavy oil 1 in a mixer 63. In the simulation of this embodiment, 20% of the unreacted heavy oil from the distillation column 62 is recycled, although this embodiment is not limited to the recycling of any specific a percent of unreacted heavy oil from a distillation column. Before entering the injection reactor 14, the mixed heavy oil 26 is heated in the heat exchanger 13. Simulation again assumes that 40% of the heated heavy oil 2 interacts with the synthesis gas, and the remaining 60% is a quenching material. The simulation results of this embodiment are shown in table 2. Note that the crude oil product 21 has a much higher density in degrees by API than in the embodiment of FIG. 3. In this embodiment, the crude oil product 21 contains 66.9 molar percent of cracked heavy oil components.

table 2
The results of a simulation of the embodiment of the method of refining oil for recycled heavy oil shown in figure 4 The material involved in the method Flow volume The volume of flow, Kgmol / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure kPa Oil quality
ANI Heavy oil 1 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 199.5 93.1 169 1,165 32.8 Recycled Heavy Oil 25 5,454 barrel / day 72.0 200 93.3 169 1,165 Natural gas 5 entering the mixer 16 10.4 megacub.ft / day 517.1 80 26.7 178.5 1,231 Par 7 12,320 lbs / hour 310.3 372.8 189.3 178.5 1,231 Hot water 23 entering the boiler 626,500 lbs / hour 15,770 357.7 180.9 1520 10,480 Heated compressed air 12 109,900 lbs / hour 1,730 1050 565.6 177 1,220 Heated fuel mixture 9 31,730 lbs / hour 827.4 1050 565.6 177 1,220 Synthetic gas generated in the injection reactor 14 141.630 lb / h 3,155 2237 1,225 167 1,151 Heated Heavy Oil 2 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 500 260 167 1,151 Refined Heavy Oil 3 722,500 lbs / hour 3,754 752.9 400,5 160 1,103 Chilled Refined Heavy Oil 4 722,500 lbs / hour 3,754 120 48.9 112.5 776 Liquid Product 66 576,800 lbs / hour 1,427 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Sulfur Crude Oil 65 556,100 lb / h 961.4 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Natural gas 5 entering the separation column 58 1.0 megacub.ft / day 49.9 69.2 20.7 15.8 109 Gas 67 154,400 lbs / hour 2,447 110 43.3 45 310 Wastewater 22 1,130 barrel / day 414.5 118.9 48.3 14.8 102 Exhaust gas from the furnace 17 310 megacub.ft / day 15,580 506.3 263.5 14.8 102 Crude oil product 21 40,710 barrel / day 870.7 118 47.8 15.8 109 56.6

Another embodiment is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the injection reactor 14 is replaced by a partial oxidation reactor 75 and a refining reactor 66. Partial oxidation refers to a method of limiting the amount of oxygen that can interact with the fuel mixture in order to ensure that the output products are primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide, rather than carbon dioxide and water. Partial oxidation reactors are well known in the field of gas to liquid conversion, as well as in other fields, and the present embodiment is an example of the application of a partial oil refining process using well-known commercially available components. The heated fuel mixture 9 and heated compressed air 12 enter the partial oxidation reactor 75 to generate synthesis gas 76. The hot synthesis gas 76 is directed through a set of injection nozzles (not shown) located in the refining reactor 66. In this embodiment, a high steam to natural gas ratio in the heated fuel mixture 9 is used to maintain the synthesis gas 76 at a temperature of approximately 1400 ° F (760 ° C). This prevents high temperature damage to the flow lines and nozzles used to transport the synthetic gas 76 to the refining reactor 66. This approximate temperature is not a limitation of the present embodiment, but rather is a function of the temperature resistance of the materials used to make the components of the refining equipment. Simulation of this embodiment again suggests that 40% of the heated heavy oil 2 interacts with the synthesis gas, and the remaining 60% is a quenching material. The results of simulation modeling of this embodiment are given in table.3. Crude oil product 21 contains 60.7 molar percent of cracked heavy oil and has a density improvement of 8.4 degrees ANI.

Table 3
The results of the simulation of the embodiment of the partial refinement method of oil for the partial oxidation reactor shown in FIG. 5 The material involved in the method Flow volume The volume of flow, Kgmol / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure kPa Oil Quality ANI Heavy oil 1 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 199.5 93.1 169 1,165 32.8 Natural gas 5 entering the mixer 16 20.0 megacub.ft / day 997.9 80 26.7 178.5 1,231 Par 7 150,600 lbs / hour 3,792 372.8 189.3 178.5 1,231 Hot water 23 entering the boiler 930,000 lbs / hour 23,420 450.1 232.3 1520 10,480 Heated compressed air 12 154,200 lbs / hour 2,429 800 426.7 177 1,220 Heated fuel mixture 9 188,050 lbs / hour 4,790 800 426.7 177 1,220 Synthetic gas 76 342,250 lb / h 8,223 1401 760.8 167 1,151 Heated Heavy Oil 2 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 500 260 167 1,151 Refined Heavy Oil 3 853,500 lbs / hour 8,751 792.5 ° F 422.5 160 1,103 Chilled Refined Heavy Oil 4 853,500 lbs / hour 8,751 120 48.9 112.5 776 Liquid Product 66 626,400 lbs / hour 4,356 119.7 48.7 14.8 102 Sulfur Crude Oil 65 484,500 lbs / hour 818.1 119.7 48.7 14.8 102 Natural gas 5 entering the separation column 58 910 kilo cubic feet / day 45.4 69.2 20.7 15.8 109 Gas 67 233,400 lbs / hour 4,490 110 43.3 45 310 Wastewater 22 9.538 barrel / day 3,499 119.7 48.7 14.8 102 Exhaust gas from the furnace 17 520.0 megacub.ft / day 25,900 507 263.9 14.8 102 Crude oil product 21 40,170 barrel / day 806.4 119.5 48.6 15.8 109 41.2

The embodiment depicted in FIG. 6 is similar to the embodiment of FIG. 5, except that part of the fuel gas 19 is recycled to the refining reactor 14. Since fuel gas 19 contains reactive gases, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide, the present embodiment has a reduced need for natural gas 5 contained in fuel mixture 9. After fuel gas 19 is compressed in compressor 71, steam is mixed in mixer 70 with fuel gas 19 for reduce metal corrosion with the formation of dust in furnace 77. The mixture 72 is heated in furnace 77, preferably to a temperature in the range of 1000 to 1500 ° F (538-816 ° C), and more preferably in the range of 1200 to 1400 ° F (649 -760 ° C) and mixes with si synthetic gas in mixer 69. In this embodiment, some, but preferably from 0 to 70% of the fuel gas 19 may be recycled to the mixer 70. Simulation again assumes that 40% of the heated heavy oil 2 interacts with the synthesis gas, and the remaining 60% are extinguishing material.

Table 4 shows that the use of natural gas 5 is reduced by 45% due to the use of 50% fuel gas 19 in the simulation of recycling. This, in turn, reduces the requirements for the volume of heated compressed air 12 and steam 7. These decreases, in turn, lead to the advantages of reducing exhaust gas emissions from the furnace 17 and lowering the volume of waste water 22. The crude oil product 21 contains 61.9 molar percent of the components of the cracked heavy oil. An alternative process scheme based on this embodiment would allow recycled fuel gas to bypass the gas treatment unit. This alternative would have the advantages of reducing the gas treatment plant and allow the reactive radicals of hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen in unreacted fuel gas to facilitate the refining reactions.

Table 4
The results of the simulation of the embodiment of the partial refinement method of oil with a reactor and recycled gas, shown in Fig.6 The material involved in the method Flow volume The volume of flow, Kgmol / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure kPa Oil Quality ANI Heavy oil 1 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 199.5 93.1 169 1,165 32.8 Natural gas 5 entering the mixer 16 10.5 megacub.ft / day 521.6 80 26.7 178.5 1,231 Par 7 78,730 lb / h 1,982 372.8 189.3 178.5 1,231 Hot water 23 entering the boiler 579,000 lbs / hour 14,580 596.3 313.5 1520 10,480 Heated compressed air 12 80,630 lb / h 1,270 800 426.7 177 1,220 Heated fuel mixture 9 98,300 lbs / hour 2,504 800 426.7 177 1,220 Synthetic gas 76 178,900 lbs / hour 4,299 1401 760.8 167 1,151 Recycled residual gas 174,300 lbs / hour 3,383 1401 760.8 167 1,151 Heated Heavy Oil 2 40,000 barrel / day 528.4 500 260 167 1,151 Refined Heavy Oil 3 864,400 lbs / hour 8,209 797.6 425.3 160 1,103 Chilled Refined Heavy Oil 4 864,400 lbs / hour 8,209 120 48.9 112.5 776 Liquid Product 66 617,100 lbs / hour 3,990 119.1 48,4 14.8 102 Sulfur Crude Oil 65 490,100 lb / h 849.8 119.1 48,4 14.8 102 Natural gas 5 entering the separation column 58 910 kilo cubic feet / day 45.4 69 20.7 16 109 Gas 67 255,700 lbs / hour 4,333 110 43.3 45 310 Wastewater 22 8,417 barrels / day 3,088 119.1 48,4 14.8 102 Exhaust gas from the furnace 17 297 megacub.ft / day 14,780 504.5 262.5 14.8 102 Crude oil product 21 40,680 barrel / day 832.5 117.5 47.5 14.8 109 41.9

Examples

The concept of a partial refining process for an oil with a combined reactor system is demonstrated in a continuous flow unit as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. As shown in FIG. 9, the combined reactor 100 consists of a refining chamber 110 for refining heavy oil located on top of the reaction chamber 120 for partial oxidation, which are connected using a flange connection 140. The reaction chamber 120 for partial oxidation has a refractory lining 130 with an inner diameter of 150 to 4 inches and a length of 160 to 16 inches. Natural gas mixed with steam 171 and air 172 is introduced into the reaction chamber 120 through an end mixing injector 170. An electronically controlled ignitor 180 with a hot surface is used to initiate a thermal partial oxidation reaction. The hot synthesis gas generated in the reaction chamber 120 is directed into the reaction chamber 110 through the synthesis gas passage 121 and through the orifice of the exhaust nozzle 190. Heavy crude oil 111 enters the lower part of the reaction chamber 110 through a recessed pipe 112. The lower section of the reaction chamber 110 has The inner diameter is 113 by 4.9 inches and has a refractory lining 114 to reduce heat loss. Hot syngas is injected into the mixing chamber 191 of the exhaust nozzle 190, where the heavy crude oil and the circulating fluids in the reactor first come into contact and interact. The effluent leaves the nozzle chamber 191, and further refining reactions are carried out in the reaction chamber 110. The refined oil 118 leaves the reaction chamber 110 through the outlet 119. The upper section of the reaction chamber 110 has an inner diameter of 115 by 3 inches and a length of 3 feet. To measure the reaction temperature, a plurality of thermocouples 116a, 116b, 116c, 116d, 116e, 116f, 116g are located along the upper part of the reaction chamber 110. The hydrodynamics of the reaction chamber 110 are strongly influenced by the outlet force of the outlet nozzle 190. In the case of a very strong outlet force, heavy oil molecules can pass through the outlet nozzle 190 many times before exiting the reaction chamber 110.

A simplified diagram of the method of partial refinement of oil pilot installation 290 shown in Fig.10. The refined crude oil and gaseous product 210 leave the reaction chamber 110 and enter the hot separator 200. The hydrocarbons and water vapor leaving the hot separator 200 are condensed in the cold separator 220. Additional liquid from light hydrocarbons and water contained in the gas product are collected in a tank traps 230. Both liquids from the cold separator 220 and from the capacity of the trap 230 are combined in an oil and water separator 231, and the light oil 240 is separated from the water 241. Then the light oil 240 is combined with the heavy oil 250 from the hot about separator 200 to form refined crude oil 260. Although an alternative process stream not shown in FIG. 10 should include recycling heavy oil 250 from hot separator 200 back to reaction chamber 110. Alternatively, a light oil gas oil fraction may be recycled to reactor 110 240 to give a generally lighter liquid product with a higher ANI density and lower viscosity. The gaseous product 270 leaves the pilot unit 290 and is analyzed online using a gas chromatograph 280. Various characterizations of the refined crude oil may be carried out. Examples of two sets of reaction conditions are provided for illustration, but are not intended to limit the process in any way.

Example 1

Cold Lake bitumen is used as heavy crude oil to demonstrate the concept of a partial refining process. The flow rates for various input streams and product streams and reaction conditions are listed in table 5.

Table 5 The material involved in the method Flow volume Mass flow gram / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure kPa Partial Oxidation Natural Gas 32.57 cubic feet / hour 661.8 695.3 368.5 327.1 2,255,4 Partial Oxidation Steam 32.72 cubic feet / hour 685.0 695.3 368.5 327.1 2,255,4 Partial Oxidation Compressed Air 146.45 cubic feet / hour 5,049,9 711.2 377.4 335.0 2,309.8 Partial refinement synthetic gas 244.22 cubic feet / hour 6,396.7 1,619,6 882.0 316.3 2,180,9 Partial Refining Heavy Oil 1.24 barrel / day 8,248,0 658.2 347.9 316.3 2,180,9 Partial Enclosure Bottom 14,644,7 763.3 406.3 316.3 2,180,9 Partial Enclosure Part Middle 14,644,7 756.5 402.5 315.8 2,177,4 Partial Enclosure Bottom 14,644,7 752.4 400,2 315.3 2,174,0 C ₂ -C ₄ in gas products 54.6 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 C ₅ -C ₉ in gas products 47.5 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Refined Crude Oil 1.22 barrel / day 7,967.2 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Coke 0,0 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Wastewater 0.16 barrel / day 1,047,2 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Carbon material in general = 97.4% by mass
Conversion 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) = 39.6% by mass

Even at a very high syngas temperature of 1619 ° F (882 ° C) and a low partial hydrogen pressure (18% of the syngas pressure), the refining reactions do not produce a coke product. This may be due to the very short reaction time inside the nozzle chamber and the rapid quenching by the reactor fluid after the effluent from the reaction chamber leaves the nozzle chamber. Embodiments of the present invention produce less than 1% by weight coke relative to fresh incoming oil, alternatively, less than 0.5% by weight or less than 0.1% by weight coke. The partial oil refining reactor is very effective in minimizing secondary cracking reactions, as it shows a very low yield (<1% mass) of gaseous light hydrocarbons (C ₁ -C ₄ ) with respect to the fresh incoming oil, as shown above. Embodiments of the present invention produce less than 4% by weight gaseous light hydrocarbons (C ₁ -C ₄ ) with respect to fresh incoming oil, alternatively, less than 3 or 2% by weight, or less than 1% by weight gaseous light hydrocarbons (C ₁ -C ₄ ). Embodiments of the present invention give more than 80% of the mass liquid products. Liquid products are materials that are liquids at room temperature and do not include gases (C ₁ -C ₄ ) and coke. Embodiments of the present invention provide more than 85, 90 or 95% by weight of liquid products.

Product quality data compared to the original Cold Lake bitumen are listed in Table 6. Even when converted at 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) close to 40%, refined crude oil contains only a small fraction with a boiling point below 350 ° F (177 ° C). This may be due to inadequate cooling of the outlet of the pilot plant, which can lead to some losses of the C ₅ -C ₇ fraction of light oil. Embodiments of the present invention give a conversion at 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) with respect to fresh incoming oil equal to more than 30% by weight, alternatively, more than 35% by weight or more than 37.5% by weight. Refined crude oil has a much lower viscosity than the original bitumen, but has higher Conradson carbon and insoluble toluene. Elemental analysis shows that the refined crude oil has a higher hydrogen content than the original bitumen, while the bromine number and P-factor indicate that the refined crude oil is very stable.

Table 6 Fluid properties Unit Bitumen Cold Lake Refined Crude Oil Fraction <350 ° F (176.7 ° C) wt.% 0.00 2.59 Fraction <650 ° F (343.3 ° C) wt.% 15.17 27.35 Fraction <1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) wt.% 52,49 70.33 Fraction> 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) wt.% 47.51 29.67 Density ANI 10.07 11.83 Kinetic viscosity @ 40 ° C centistokes 7,730,0 369.00 Kinetic viscosity @ 100 ° C centistokes 128.00 21.62 MCRT wt.% 13.03 13.78 Insoluble toluene wt.% 0.09 0.20 Bromine number gBr ₂ / 100g 17.18 16.52 C wt.% 84.42 84.88 N wt.% 10.03 10.22 N wt.% 0.33 0.42 S wt.% 4.73 4.26 Water content wt.% 0.15 0.26 P factor 2.41

Example 2

Athabasca bitumen is used as heavy crude oil for this study. Flow rates for various input streams and product streams and reaction conditions are listed in table 7.

Table 7 The material involved in the method Flow volume Mass flow gram / hour Temperature ° F Temperature ° C Pressure psi (abs.) Pressure kPa Partial Oxidation Natural Gas 30.81 cubic feet per hour 626.0 615.1 323.9 370.0 2,551,4 Partial Oxidation Steam 33.99 cubic feet per hour 731.9 615.1 323.9 370.0 2,551,4 Partial Oxidation Compressed Air 139.12 cubic feet per hour 4,797,4 629.7 332.1 378.5 2,609.8 Partial refinement synthetic gas 226.89 cubic feet per hour 6,155,3 1,530,0 832.2 368.6 2,541.8 Partial Refining Heavy Oil 0.91 barrel / day 6,070,4 580.3 304.6 368.6 2,541.8 The lower part of the partial refinement chamber 12,225,6 770.5 410.3 368.6 2,541.8 The middle part of the partial refining chamber 12,225,6 763.0 406.1 368.1 2,538,3 The lower part of the partial refinement chamber 12,225,6 758.8 403.8 367.6 2,534.9 C ₂ -C ₄ in gas products 60.5 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 C ₅ -C ₉ in gas products 61.7 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Refined Crude Oil 0.89 barrel /
day 5,796.5 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Coke 0,0 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Wastewater 0.17 barrel /
day 1,128,1 80.0 26.7 14.7 101,4 Carbon material in general = 97.7% by mass
Conversion 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) = 39.1% by mass

The bitumen delivery rate (0.91 barrel / day) and the synthesis gas temperature (832 ° C) of Example 2 are lower than in Example 1. Again, the coke product was not observed during conversion at 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C), close to 40%. For refined crude oil, a very high degree of viscosity reduction is achieved, as shown in Table 8. Conradson's carbon content of refined bitumen is slightly lower than that of the original bitumen, while insoluble toluene is maintained at the same level. Refined crude oil has a higher hydrogen content than the original bitumen, as in Example 1. Both the bromine number and the P-factor indicate that the refined crude oil is stable without the need for further hydroprocessing.

Table 8 Fluid properties Unit Bitumen Athabasca Refined Crude Oil Fraction <350 ° F (176.7 ° C) wt.% 0.00 2.72 Fraction <650 ° F (343.3 ° C) wt.% 12.25 26.58 Fraction <1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) wt.% 54.30 70.83 Fraction> 1050 ° F (565.6 ° C) wt.% 45.70 29.17 Density ANI 9.16 11.84 Kinetic viscosity @ 40 ° C centistokes 20,900.00 228.65 Kinetic viscosity @ 100 ° C centistokes 205.00 16.30 MCRT wt.% 12.93 12.17 Insoluble toluene wt.% 0,03 0,07 Bromine number gBr ₂ / 100g 19.18 19.08 C wt.% 84.50 84.87 N wt.% 10.26 10.74 N wt.% 0.36 0.33 S wt.% 4.83 4.25 Water content wt.% 0.18 0.14 P factor 2.03

It should be understood that the entire foregoing description is only a detailed description of specific embodiments of the present invention. Other embodiments may be used and numerous changes to the described embodiments may be made as described herein without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. For example, each of the above embodiments includes the use of a separate injection or refining reactor. The method of partial refinement of oil is not limited in this way. In particular, embodiments of the process, in which more than one injector reactor or refining reactor are used in series, are used to thereby obtain high refinement efficiencies. The specified method can also be used in embodiments in which more than one injection reactor or refining reactor are used in parallel, so that a higher volumetric throughput for refining heavy oil can be achieved. Each of these embodiments is within the scope of the present invention. For this reason, the foregoing description is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Rather, the scope of the present invention should be determined only by the attached claims and their equivalents.

All documents cited here are fully incorporated by reference for all jurisdictions in which such inclusion is permitted, and to the extent that they are no longer consistent with this description. Although some dependent claims have single dependencies, in accordance with US practice, each of the features in any of the dependent claims may be combined with each of the features of one or more other dependent claims, depending on the same independent claim or claims . Certain features of the present invention are described in terms of a set of numerical upper limits and a set of numerical lower limits. You must understand that the limits obtained by any combination of these limits are within the scope of the present invention, unless otherwise indicated.

Claims (42)

1. A heavy oil refining reactor comprising a partial oxidation reaction chamber suitable for generating a synthetic gas containing hydrogen gas, a heavy oil refining reaction chamber containing a high temperature reaction zone suitable for thermal cracking of at least a portion of the heavy oil in the presence of synthesis gas at a temperature in excess of 1225 ° F for less than 10 s to form thermally cracked oil, a quick quench zone suitable for use thermally cracked oil using quenching heavy oil for 10 s initiating thermal cracking of heavy oil in the high-temperature reaction zone, a stabilization zone suitable for providing a residence time for thermally cracked oil from 1 to 60 minutes at a reduced temperature of less than 850 ° F with the formation of ennobled oil mixture, and at least one outlet nozzle suitable for receiving synthesis gas formed in a partial oxidation reaction chamber and flowing through an effluent a nozzle at a speed sufficient to discharge heavy oil from the reaction chamber of the heavy oil into the exhaust nozzle to ensure that the syngas is in contact with at least a portion of the heavy oil, and a passage suitable for recovering at least a portion of the refined oil mixture from the reaction heavy oil refining chambers. 2. The reactor according to claim 1, in which the high-temperature reaction zone is mainly located in the exhaust nozzle. 3. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the high-temperature reaction zone is completely located in the exhaust nozzle. 4. The reactor according to claim 3, in which the quick blanking zone is mainly located in the exhaust nozzle. 5. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the heavy oil refining reaction chamber is adapted to internally recycle a mixture of thermally cracked oil and quenching heavy oil to an exhaust nozzle, thereby providing a plurality of passes of the recycled oil through the high temperature reaction zone of the heavy oil refining reaction chamber. 6. The reactor according to claim 5, in which the exhaust nozzle is adapted to pass through it more than 10 units of oil for each unit of fresh heavy oil entering the reaction chamber for refining heavy oil. 7. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the partial oxidation reaction chamber comprises an oxidizing reagent passage suitable for passing an oxidizing reagent consisting essentially of air into the partial oxidation reaction chamber. 8. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the reaction chamber for refining heavy oil is adapted to operate at an internal pressure of 200 to 600 psi. 9. The reactor of claim 8, in which the reaction chamber for refining heavy oil is adapted to operate at a partial pressure of hydrogen gas from 40 to 120 psi. 10. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the stabilization zone is adapted to provide a residence time for thermally cracked oil from 20 to 50 minutes 11. The reactor according to claim 2, in which the high-temperature reaction zone is adapted for thermal cracking of at least part of the heavy oil in the presence of synthesis gas at a temperature exceeding 1225 ° F for less than 2 s. 12. The reactor according to claim 2, which contains many passages of the exhaust nozzles. 13. The method for upgrading heavy oil, carried out in the reactor according to claim 1, providing at least 80 wt.% Liquid products and containing the following stages: thermal cracking of incoming oil containing heavy oil at a temperature above 1225 ° F for less than 10 s in the presence of a gas containing hydrogen to obtain a thermally cracked oil product; quenching the thermally cracked oil product within 10 seconds of initiating thermal cracking of the incoming oil by mixing the thermally cracked oil product with quenching oil to form a quenched oil product; stabilization of the slaked oil product at a temperature of less than 850 ° F. for 1 to 60 minutes to form a stabilized oil product. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the duration of the thermal cracking step is less than 2 s. 15. The method according to 14, in which the stage of thermal cracking is basically a gas-phase reaction of thermal cracking. 16. The method according to clause 15, in which the quenching oil contains heavy oil. 17. The method according to clause 16, further comprising creating a stream of fresh heavy oil coming in with a first specific mass flow rate. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the incoming oil for the thermal cracking step comprises a recycled off oil product and / or a stabilized oil product. 19. The method according to p, in which the total specific mass flow rate of the incoming oil at the stage of thermal cracking exceeds at least 10 times the first specific mass flow rate of the flow of fresh heavy oil. 20. The method according to clause 16, in which the heavy oil is refined to a lighter oil both at the stage of thermal cracking and at the stage of stabilization. 21. The method according to claim 20, in which at least 30% of the total upgrading of heavy oil is carried out at the stabilization stage. 22. The method according to clause 16, which provides less than 4 wt.% Hydrocarbons With ₁ -C ₄ . 23. The method according to item 22, which provides less than 1 wt.% Hydrocarbons C ₁ -C ₄ . 24. The method according to clause 16, in which the product extinguished oil is stabilized for from 20 to 50 minutes 25. The method according to clause 16, in which the gas containing hydrogen is a synthetic gas, obtained mainly from air, as an oxidizing reagent and contains hydrogen gas. 26. The method according A.25, in which the stage of thermal cracking is carried out at a system pressure of from 200 to 600 psi. 27. The method according to p, in which the stage of thermal cracking is carried out at a partial pressure of hydrogen gas from 40 to 120 psi. 28. The method according to item 27, in which the synthesis gas further includes the use of steam and gaseous hydrocarbons, the molar ratio of steam to gaseous hydrocarbons is from 0.5: 1 to 2.0: 1. 29. The method according to clause 16, which provides less than 1 wt.% Coke in relation to fresh incoming oil. 30. The method according to clause 29, which provides less than 0.5 wt.% Coke in relation to fresh incoming oil. 31. The method according to p. 30, which provides less than 0.1 wt.% Coke in relation to fresh incoming oil. 32. The method according to clause 16, providing refinement of heavy oil at 1050 ° F, exceeds 30 wt.%. 33. The method according to p, providing refinement of heavy oil at 1050 ° F, exceeds 35 wt.%. 34. The method according to clause 16, in which the index of the intensity of the reaction of the stabilization stage is less than 300 C. 35. The method according to clause 16, in which the intensity index of the reaction of the stabilization stage is less than 200 C. 36. The method according to clause 16, which provides at least 90 wt.% Liquid products. 37. The method according to clause 36, which provides at least 95 wt.% Liquid products. 38. The method according to clause 16, which is a non-catalytic method. 39. The method according to clause 16, in which the incoming oil contains up to 5 wt.% Solid products. 40. The method according to clause 16, further comprising separating the heavy oil fraction from the stabilized oil product and recycling said heavy oil fraction to a thermal cracking step. 41. The method according to clause 15, in which the quenching oil contains gas oil. 42. The stabilized oil product obtained using the method according to item 13.

Images