Abstract
Cracking of Arabian Heavy Vacuum Residue in the presence of a hydrogen donor solvent and catalysts has been studied using a small scale pilot plant (0.1BPD) with the following process features: (1) Cracking in the existence of a hydrogen donor solvent and a catalyst. (2) Use of an internal recycle reactor. (3) Use of two stage reactors; Cracking/Hydrogenation. (4) Use of a recycle solvent containing tetralin as its main component. As a result of long pilot plant runs, it was confirmed that this type of process has the following characteristics for cracking heavy oils: (1) Coke formation can be reduced to almost zero. (2) Hydrogen consumption is low. (3) Catalyst deactivation is relatively small. (4) Hydrogen pressure is relatively low (50-100atm). (5) Handling of solid particles and slurry can be avoided and the process is simple.
