Virtual unity development of heavy petroleum residues deasphalting to maximize the deasphalted oil production, and consequently, the lubricant oil production

Author(s)

Ayda Karina León Ayala

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Química
• Defense date: 2011-02-03

Examining board members

Maria Regina Wolf Maciel; José Carlos Rodrigues; Erika Tomie Koroishi Blini

• Advisor: Maria Regina Wolf Maciel

Abstract

The increasing in global energy demand and the discovery of heavy crude oils by PETROBRAS in recent years have increased the development of new technologies in Brazil, for processing this type of oil as well as the adequacy of existing processes in refineries, in order to obtain light products of high commercial value, attending to the market requirements. In the lubricating oil production has increased the necessity of recognize the production potential of the heavy oil distillation residues. Within this context, the study of the vacuum residue deasphalting process using supercritical solvents is of great importance, since it allows the possibility of determine the operational condition that maximize the deasphalted oil (ODES) from a specific feed. The ODES after resin, aromatics, and naphthenic compounds separation will be transformed in lubricating oil. Therefore, in this research, is developed the simulation of the supercritical vacuum residue (13,1° API) deasphalting process, using propane as solvent, in the commercial simulator ASPEN HYSYS®. The simulations were made at steady and dynamic state. The thermodynamic behavior of the system was studied from equilibrium analysis of the mixture, testing different thermodynamic models, in order to obtain a better representation of the actual process. Moreover, a method was used to characterize the vacuum residue, based on experimentally data from other dissertations and theses pertaining to the Development Laboratory of Separation (LDPS) and Laboratory of Optimization, Project and Advanced Control (LOPCA) at UNICAMP. Once developed the simulation, are determine operating conditions that allows maximize the amount of ODES using experimental design, and also, the extraction time is estimate by dynamic simulations. The yield and cost of the process using propane as solvent are compared by using carbon dioxide, as well as, the selectivity of both solvents, founding that propane offers major advantages in producing high quality oil deasphalted to obtain lubricant oil. With the virtual unity development is intended to make use of computer simulation to reflect the industrial process, allowing the influence of several variables study by a small number of runs in an experimental pilot plant, which leads to save time, materials and energy (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 08/07641-3 - Development of a heavy petroleum residues DEASPHALTING virtual unit to maximize the DEASPHALTED oil production, and from there, then lubricant oil production
• Grantee: Ayda Karina Leon Ayala
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master