Integrating An Atmospheric Fractionator With A Diluent Recovery Unit And A Resid Hydrocracker

Abstract

This is a unique way to optimize an existing refinery to process heavy bitumen. The upgrade utilizes a diluent recovery unit (DRU) in front of a Resid Hydrocracker. The recovered bitumen from the Resid Hydrocracker is fed to an integrated atmospheric fractionator to convert the light sweet refinery to diluted bitumen.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A unique process for conditioning bitumen so that the bitumen can be processed in an existing light sweet refinery comprising the steps of:
 providing a blend of a heavy whole bitumen and diluents to produce a diluted bitumen;   feeding the blend to a diluent recovery unit (DRU);   removing the diluents from the diluted bitumen, in the DRU without additional metallurgy upgrades, to produce a recovered whole bitumen;   feeding the recovered whole bitumen to a Resid Hydrocracker;   recovering a conditioned whole bitumen having reduced sulfur and nitrogen contents, having eliminated corrosive components, and having a boiling point which is lower than the boiling point of a heavy hydrocarbonaceous feedstock from the Resid Hydrocracker; and   feeding the recovered conditioned lowered boiling point whole bitumen from the Resid Hydrocracker to an integrated atmospheric fractionator.   
     
     
         2 . The process according to  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 recovering an atmospheric tower bottoms (ATB) product from the atmospheric fractionator; and 
 feeding the ATB product to a vacuum unit. 
 
     
     
         3 . The process according to  claim 1  further comprising the step of:
 feeding the diluents removed from the diluted bitumen at the DRU to the atmospheric fractionator for further processing to avoid a separate DRU overhead system. 
 
     
     
         4 . The process according to  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 recovering an overhead material from the atmospheric fractionator and using the overhead material to preheat the diluted bitumens feeding the DRU. 
 
     
     
         5 . The process according to  claim 1  further comprising the step of blending Resid Hydrocracker ATB with conventional ATB for stability control.