Advanced Catalysis and Processes to Convert Heavy Residues Into Fuels and High Value Chemicals

Abstract

The petroleum refining process begins with distillation, first at atmospheric pressure and after at reduced pressure. The volatile fractions, in both cases, have greater economic value, and the distillation residue-produced atmospheric residue and vacuum residue represent a significant portion of a barrel of crude. The need to convert bottom of the barrel into cleaner and more valuable olefins and liquid products is continuously increasing. Thus, residue must be converted into more valuable products, and further processes can be employed for upgrading residue. Examples are delayed coking, visco-reduction, and fluidized catalytic cracking. On the other hand, the optimization of refining facilities to deal with such feeds brings economic competitiveness since these oils have low prices in the international market. Studies on processes and catalytic cracking are quite important under this aspect. The conversion of heavy petroleum fraction into valuable liquid products and high value chemicals has been important objectives for upgrading heavy petroleum oils.