Upgrading of heavy oil or heavy oil-derived product with ionic liquids

Abstract

Processes for upgrading a heavy oil or heavy oil-derived feedstock in presence of an ionic liquid are described, and can improve the heavy oil or heavy oil-derived properties such as viscosity and composition, and reduced contaminant content, such as a reduced Total Acid Number (TAN) and a reduced heavy metal content. Processes for upgrading heavy oil or heavy oil-derived in presence of an ionic liquid can include a catalytic cracking treatment carried out under catalytic cracking conditions, and/or a non-catalytic treatment, as well as various separation steps to separate the ionic liquid or a diluent if present in the feedstock. The ionic liquids that can be used in the context of the processes described herein include ionic liquids that are feed-miscible or feed-immiscible.

1 . A process for treating a heavy oil or heavy oil-derived feedstock, the process comprising:
 contacting an acidic ionic liquid catalyst with the feedstock to obtain an ionic liquid-feedstock mixture;   subjecting the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture to a catalytic cracking treatment, the catalytic cracking treatment comprising heating the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture under catalytic cracking conditions to obtain an ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture; and   separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture to obtain a cracked product and a recovered acidic ionic liquid catalyst.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises bitumen. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream from a distillation unit, a diluent stripping unit or a diluent recovery unit. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream that is obtained from a bitumen froth treatment operation. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises a diluent-depleted bitumen stream that has not been subjected to fractionation or distillation prior to being contacted with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises a residuum stream from a distillation tower that has been operated to remove light hydrocarbon components. 
     
     
         7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the feedstock comprises an overhead distillate product from a distillation tower. 
     
     
         9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising subjecting the feedstock to a pre-treatment prior to the contacting of the feedstock with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst, wherein the pre-treatment comprises heating the feedstock at a pre-treatment temperature to reduce viscosity of the feedstock. 
     
     
         11 . (canceled) 
     
     
         12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising subjecting the feedstock to a pre-treatment prior to the contacting of the feedstock with the acidic ionic liquid catalyst, wherein the pre-treatment comprises adding a diluent comprising at least one of the naphthenic solvent, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and a non-deasphalting organic solvent, to the feedstock. 
     
     
         14 . (canceled) 
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . (canceled) 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 13 , further comprising recovering the diluent to obtain a recovered diluent, wherein recovering the diluent is performed after the catalytic cracking treatment of the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture under catalytic cracking conditions and before separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture. 
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 13 , further comprising recovering the diluent to obtain a recovered diluent, wherein recovering the diluent is performed after separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture. 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . (canceled) 
     
     
         22 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the recovered acidic ionic liquid catalyst is reused as part of the acidic ionic liquid catalyst that contacts the feedstock. 
     
     
         23 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein separating the acidic ionic liquid catalyst from the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture comprises a liquid-liquid extraction of the ionic liquid-cracked feedstock mixture. 
     
     
         24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a Lewis acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprising a Lewis acidic anion and a cation selected from the group consisting of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cations, tetraalkylphosphonium cations, tetraalkylammonium cations, trialkylammonium cations and combinations thereof. 
     
     
         26 . (canceled) 
     
     
         27 . (canceled) 
     
     
         28 . (canceled) 
     
     
         29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . The process of  claim 25 , wherein the Lewis acidic anion is a chlorometallate anion. 
     
     
         31 . (canceled) 
     
     
         32 . (canceled) 
     
     
         33 . (canceled) 
     
     
         34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . (canceled) 
     
     
         36 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid. 
     
     
         37 . The process of  claim 36 , wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a Group(III)halometallate with a mole fraction XMX n  above 0.5. 
     
     
         38 . The process of  claim 36 , wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a Group(III)halometallate with a Gutmman Acceptor Number (AN) above 90. 
     
     
         39 . The process of  claim 36 , wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a haloaluminate or a halogallate ionic liquid, with a mole fraction XMX n  above 0.5. 
     
     
         40 . (canceled) 
     
     
         41 . (canceled) 
     
     
         42 . (canceled) 
     
     
         43 . The process of  claim 39 , wherein the strong Lewis acidic ionic liquid comprises a cation selected from the group consisting of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cations, tetraalkylphosphonium cations, tetraalkylammonium cations, trialkylammonium cations, and combinations thereof. 
     
     
         44 . (canceled) 
     
     
         45 . (canceled) 
     
     
         46 . (canceled) 
     
     
         47 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst is a Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst. 
     
     
         48 . The process of  claim 47 , wherein the Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a protonated imidazolium cation, a protonated C 1-n alkyl-substituted imidazolium cation, a protonated tri(C 1-n alkyl)ammonium cation, a protonated pyridinium cation, a guanidinium cation, a protonated C 1-n alkyl-substituted guanidinium cation, a protonated pyrrolidinium cation, a protonated N—C 1-n alkyl-pyrrolidinium cation, a protonated ammonium cation, a protonated tri(C 1-n alkyl)ammonium cation, a COOH-bearing imidazolium cation or a SO 3 H-bearing imidazolium cation, where in the C 1-n alkyl group, n is an integer from 2 to 20. 
     
     
         49 . The process of  claim 47 , wherein the Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a cation selected from the group consisting of 
       
         
           
           
               
               
           
         
       
       where R can represent a C 1-n  alkyl group with n from 2 to 20. 
     
     
         50 . (canceled) 
     
     
         51 . (canceled) 
     
     
         52 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the acidic ionic liquid catalyst comprises a combination of a Lewis acidic ionic liquid and a Bronsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst. 
     
     
         53 . (canceled) 
     
     
         54 . (canceled) 
     
     
         55 . (canceled) 
     
     
         56 . (canceled) 
     
     
         57 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the heating is performed at a temperature between about 50° C. and about 250° C. 
     
     
         58 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the concentration of the acidic ionic liquid catalyst in the ionic liquid-feedstock mixture is between about 5 wt % and about 50 wt %. 
     
     
         59 - 247 . (canceled)