Residual Oil Coking Scheme

Abstract

A coking process and apparatus may include cracking a hydrocarbon feed stream with a catalyst, generating a hot flue gas from regenerating said catalyst, directing the hot flue gas into a spray contactor, spraying a heavy residual oil into the spray contactor, and coking the heavy residual oil utilizing the hot flue gas as a heat source. The hydrocarbon feed stream and the heavy residual oil may each or both be generated by a solvent deasphalter. The coking process produces a solid coke product and volatile hydrocarbons which leave with the hot gas and may be burned in an oxidizer to generate steam with the pressure energy recovered by a turbo-expander.

1 . An apparatus for coking a heavy residual oil, comprising:
 a catalyst regenerator for regenerating a spent catalyst so that a regenerated catalyst and a hot flue gas are obtained, wherein the hot flue gas, comprising oxygen in a range from about 2 wt-% to about 5 wt-%, exits from an outlet in fluid communication with a hot flue gas feed line;   a heavy residual oil feed line for carrying the heavy residual oil from a source;   a spray contactor in fluid communication with the hot flue gas outlet, through the hot flue gas feed line, and with the heavy residual oil feed line;   a spraying device for atomizing the heavy residual oil concurrently with directing the hot flue gas into the hot spray contactor so that,
 a) the heavy residual oil and the hot flue gas are mixed, and 
 b) the heavy residual oil is converted to obtain at least volatile products forming a stream of hydrocarbon-laden gas and a free-flowing solids stream comprising coke particles. 
   
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising a deasphalter in fluid communication with the heavy residual oil feed line. 
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 2  further comprising a fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) unit for cracking hydrocarbon feed over a catalyst and regenerating the spent catalyst in the catalyst regenerator. 
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 3  further comprising a deasphalted oil feed line for carrying hydrocarbon feed from the deasphalter to the FCC unit. 
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising a supplementary heater that supplies heat to the hot flue gas feed line in communication with the spray contactor. 
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the spray contactor comprises a spray contactor riser, a broad lower section, and a cyclone with an inlet connected to the spray contactor riser and a lower outlet in fluid communication with the lower section. 
   
   
       7 . The apparatus of  claim 6  wherein the cyclone has an upper outlet and the apparatus further comprises an oxidizer in fluid communication with the upper outlet of the cyclone. 
   
   
       8 . The apparatus of  claim 7  further comprising an expander in downstream communication with the oxidizer.