Production of carbon fiber from asphaltenes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11731878-B2
Application number	US-202117375873-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2021
Priority date	Jul 14, 2021
Publication date	Aug 22, 2023
Grant date	Aug 22, 2023

Abstract

There is provided a process and system for producing carbon fiber products. The process can involve deasphalting a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, which can contain native asphaltenes, to produce a solid asphaltene particulate material, which can be further treated to produce the carbon fiber products. In some implementations, the solid asphaltene particulate material can be extruded in the presence of a polymer. In some implementations, the solid asphaltene particulate material can be chemically treated with a chemical agent including a Lewis acid, an oxidizing agent and/or a reducing agent before extrusion. In some implementations, the process can further produce activated carbon fibers.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A process for producing a carbon fiber product from a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock comprising native asphaltenes, comprising:
solvent deasphalting the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock comprising native asphaltenes with a solvent to precipitate asphaltenes and form solid asphaltene precipitates and produce deasphalted oil;
separating the deasphalted oil from the solid asphaltene precipitates to recover a solvent-diluted deasphalted oil stream comprising at least a portion of the solvent, and a slurry stream comprising the asphaltene precipitates and residual solvent;
separating the slurry stream to produce a solid asphaltene particulate material and a recovered solvent stream;
treating the solid asphaltene particulate material to obtain the carbon fiber product.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock comprises a bitumen-containing feedstock derived from a surface mining operation or an in situ extraction operation.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the solvent used for the solvent deasphalting comprises at least one C 3 -C 8 hydrocarbon.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the solvent used for the solvent deasphalting comprises a mixture of C 5 -C 8 hydrocarbons.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the solid asphaltene particulate material comprises 95% or more C5+ asphaltenes.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein separating the slurry stream comprises vaporizing the residual solvent to produce a vapour/solid mixture comprising vaporized solvent and the solid asphaltene precipitates, and subjecting the vapour/solid mixture to inertial separation.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein treating the solid asphaltene particulate material comprises:
extruding the solid asphaltene particulate material to produce extruded asphaltenes;
spinning the extruded asphaltenes into a continuous asphaltene thread;
heat treating the continuous asphaltene thread to produce a stabilized asphaltene thread;
carbonizing the stabilized asphaltene thread to produce a carbonized carbon fiber; and
conditioning the carbonized carbon fiber to produce the carbon fiber product.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein heat treating is performed at about 175° C. to about 290° C. (about 350° F. to about 550° F.) for up to 1 hour.

9. The process of claim 7 , wherein carbonizing is performed at about 995° C. to about 2000° C. (about 1823° F. to about 3632° F.) for up to 1 hour.

10. The process of claim 7 , wherein conditioning comprises surface treating and sizing the carbonized carbon fiber to create the carbon fiber product.

11. The process of claim 7 , further comprising separating insolubles from the solid asphaltene particulate material, wherein separating the insolubles comprises combining the solid asphaltene particulate material with an insolubles-producing solvent to produce the insolubles, and removing the insolubles from the solid asphaltene particulate material.

12. The process of claim 11 , wherein the insolubles-producing solvent is a saturated or unsaturated cyclic or heterocyclic hydrocarbon.

13. The process of claim 11 , wherein the insolubles-producing solvent is one or more of toluene, xylene, benzene, tetrahydrofuran, cyclohexanone, quinoline or pyridine.

14. The process of claim 7 , wherein conditioning comprises graphitization of the carbonized carbon fiber to form a graphitized carbon fiber, and surface treating and sizing the graphitized carbon fiber to create the carbon fiber product.

15. The process of claim 14 , wherein graphitization comprises heating the carbon fiber to over 3000° C. (5432° F.).

16. The process of claim 7 , wherein conditioning comprises graphitization of the carbonized carbon fiber to form a graphitized carbon fiber, activating the graphitized carbon fiber to form an activated carbon fiber, and then surface treating and sizing the activated carbon fiber to create the carbon fiber product.

17. The process of claim 16 , wherein the graphitized carbon fiber is activated by steam activation.

18. The process of claim 17 , wherein activation is performed at a steam temperature of about 800° C. to 900° C. and a steam rate of about 100 g/hr to about 200 g/hr.

19. The process of claim 16 , wherein the activated carbon fiber has a BEL surface area of at least 500 m 2 /g.

20. The process of claim 11 , wherein the carbon fiber product has a tensile strength of at least 1.5 GPa and a Young's modulus of at least 200 GPa.

Assignees

• Suncor Energy Inc

Inventors

• Remesat Darius

Classifications

• C01B32/33 Primary

  from distillation residues of coal or petroleum; from petroleum acid sludge · CPC title

• C01B32/354

  After-treatment · CPC title

• C01B32/39

  Apparatus for the preparation thereof · CPC title

• C10C3/002

  by thermal means · CPC title

• C10G21/003

  Solvent de-asphalting · CPC title