Method for cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock in a steam cracker unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016369191-A1
Application number	US-201414901921-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2014
Priority date	Jul 2, 2013
Publication date	Dec 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process for cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock in a steam cracker unit, comprising the following steps of: feeding a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock to a hydrocracking unit, separating the stream thus hydrocracked in said hydrocracking unit into a high content aromatics stream and a gaseous stream comprising C2-C4 paraffins, hydrogen and methane, separating C2-C4 paraffins from said gaseous stream, feeding said C2-C4 paraffins thus separated to the furnace section of a steam cracker unit.

First claim

1 . A process for cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock in a steam cracker unit, comprising:
feeding a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock to a hydrocracking unit, separating the stream thus hydrocracked in said hydrocracking unit into a high content aromatics stream and a gaseous stream comprising C2-C4 paraffins, hydrogen and methane, separating C2-C4 paraffins from said gaseous stream, and feeding said C2-C4 paraffins thus separated to the furnace section of a steam cracker unit, wherein the process conditions in said hydrocracking unit are a temperature of 300-450° C., a pressure of 300-5000 kPa gauge and a Weight Hourly Space Velocity of 0.1-10 h-1.

2 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising separating said high content aromatics stream into a stream of heavy aromatics and a stream high in mono-aromatics, especially using a distillation unit.

3 . The process according to claim 1 , wherein separating said C2-C4 paraffins from said gaseous stream is carried out by cryogenic distillation or solvent extraction.

4 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising separating C2-C4 paraffins into individual streams, each stream predominantly comprising C2 paraffins, C3 paraffins and C4 paraffins, respectively, and feeding each individual stream to a specific furnace section of said steam cracker unit.

5 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising separating C2-C4 paraffins into individual streams, each stream predominantly comprising C2 paraffins, C3 paraffins and C4 paraffins, respectively, and feeding the predominantly C2 paraffin stream to a steam cracker whilst feeding the predominantly C3 paraffin stream to a propane dehydrogenation unit and feeding the predominantly C4 paraffin stream to a butane dehydrogenation unit.

6 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising recovering from said gaseous stream a stream predominantly comprising hydrogen and methane and recycling said stream to the hydrocracking unit.

7 . The process according to claim 1 , wherein the process conditions in said hydrocracking unit are, a temperature of 350-450° C., a pressure of 600-3000 kPa gauge and a Weight Hourly Space Velocity of 0.2-2 h-1.

8 . The process according to claim 1 , wherein the reactor type design of the said hydrocracking unit is chosen from the group of the fixed bed type, ebulating bed reactor type and the slurry type, wherein the reactor type design of the said hydrocracking unit is preferably of the fixed bed type.

9 . The process according to claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon feedstock to said hydrocracking unit is of the type naphtha, kerosene, diesel, atmospheric gas oil (AGO), waxes and gas condensates, or combinations thereof.

10 . The process according to claim 1 , wherein the separation of the high content aromatics stream is of the distillation type.

11 . The process according to claim 2 , further comprising separating a C7 to C9 aromatics rich fraction from the stream high in mono-aromatics, and converting said C7 to C9 aromatics rich fraction into a benzene rich fraction.

12 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising recovering hydrogen from the product stream of said steam cracker unit and feeding said hydrogen to said hydrocracking unit.

13 . The process according to claim 1 , further comprising recovering C5+ hydrocarbons from the product stream of said steam cracker unit and feeding said C5+ hydrocarbons to said hydrocracking unit.

14 . The process according to claim 7 , wherein the temperature is 375-450° C.

Assignees

• Ward Andrew Mark
• Housmans Thomas Hubertus Maria
• Oprins Arno Johannes Maria
• Saudi Basic Ind Corp
• Sabic Global Technologies Bv

Inventors

• Ward Andrew Mark
• Housmans Thomas Hubertus Maria
• Oprins Arno Johannes Maria

Classifications

• C10G67/0445

  The hydrotreatment being a hydrocracking · CPC title

• Y02P30/40

  Ethylene production · CPC title

• C10G2300/1051

  Kerosene having a boiling range of about 180 - 230 °C · CPC title

• C10G69/00

  Treatment of hydrocarbon oils by at least one hydrotreatment process and at least one other conversion process (C10G67/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C10G69/06 Primary

  including at least one step of thermal cracking in the absence of hydrogen · CPC title