Process for treating a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock to reduce its viscosity

Abstract

A process for reducing the viscosity a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, comprising: supplying the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock and elemental sulphur to a reaction zone and reacting, in the liquid phase, at a temperature in the range of from 300 to 750° C., a part of the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock with the elemental sulphur to form a reaction mixture comprising heavy hydrocarbon stream, carbon disulphide and hydrogen sulphide, followed by cooling the reaction mixture to provide treated heavy hydrocarbon stream comprising carbon disulphide. The invention also concerns products obtainable by the above process, as well as its use in pipeline transportation.

1 . A process for reducing the viscosity of a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, comprising:
 Supplying the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock and elemental sulphur to a reaction zone and reacting, in the liquid phase, at a temperature in the range of from 300 to 750° C., a part of the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock with the elemental sulphur to form a reaction mixture comprising a heavy hydrocarbon stream, carbon disulphide and hydrogen sulphide, followed by cooling the reaction mixture to provide a treated heavy hydrocarbon stream comprising carbon disulphide.   
     
     
         2 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the amount of elemental sulphur added to the reaction zone is in a range of from 1 to 25 wt % based on the heavy hydrocarbon stream. 
     
     
         3 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the amount of carbon disulphide formed is between 2 and 25 wt % based on the weight of the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock. 
     
     
         4 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock is a heavy crude oil. 
     
     
         5 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock is bitumen. 
     
     
         6 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein formed hydrogen sulphide is removed from the reaction mixture by a gas/liquid separation. 
     
     
         7 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the elemental sulphur is in a liquid elemental sulphur phase. 
     
     
         8 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock is split into two feedstocks, the first feedstock is reacted with elemental sulphur to form the treated heavy hydrocarbon stream, and the treated heavy hydrocarbon stream is combined with the second feedstock. 
     
     
         9 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the pressure in the reaction zone is in the range of from 3 to 200 bara (absolute). 
     
     
         10 . A product obtainable by a process as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the viscosity of the product is in the range of from 50 to 10000 mPa/s. 
     
     
         11 . Use of the product as claimed in  claim 10  in pipeline transportation. 
     
     
         12 . Use of the product as claim in  claim 11  at a temperature range of from 5 to 80° C. 
     
     
         13 . A process according to  claim 3  wherein the amount of carbon disulphide formed is between 5 and 20 wt %. 
     
     
         14 . A process according to  claim 4  wherein the heavy hydrocarbon oil is a residual heavy oil. 
     
     
         15 . A process according to  claim 9  wherein the pressure in the reaction zone is in the range of from 5 to 30 bara (absolute). 
     
     
         16 . The product of  claim 10  wherein the viscosity of the product is in the range of from 100 to 1000 mPa/s.