Process for whole crude oil conversion to chemicals through crude conditioning and steam cracking to maximize petrochemicals yield

Abstract

Processes herein may be used to thermally crack various hydrocarbon feeds, and may eliminate the refinery altogether while making the crude to chemicals process very flexible in terms of crude. In embodiments herein, crude is progressively separated into at least light and heavy fractions. Depending on the quality of the light and heavy fractions, these are routed to one of three upgrading operations, including a fixed bed hydroconversion unit, a fluidized catalytic conversion unit, or a residue hydrocracking unit that may utilize an ebullated bed reactor. Products from the upgrading operations may be used as feed to a steam cracker.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A process for converting whole crudes and other heavy hydrocarbon streams to produce olefins and/or aromatics, the process comprising:
 separating a hydrocarbon feedstock in a first integrated separation device into at least a light boiling fraction, a medium boiling fraction, and a high boiling residue fraction;   hydrocracking the high boiling residue fraction and pyrolysis oil in a first conditioning unit, comprising a resid hydrocracking system, to produce a hydrocracked effluent;   feeding at least a portion of the hydrocracked effluent to a second conditioning unit to produce a steam cracker feedstream;   destructively hydrogenating the medium boiling fraction in the second conditioning unit to produce additional hydrocarbons in the steam cracker feedstream;   feeding the steam cracker feedstream and the light boiling fraction to a steam cracker to convert hydrocarbons therein producing a steam cracker effluent.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising feeding the stream cracker effluent to a cracker product recovery unit, and producing a chemicals product stream and a pyrolysis oil stream. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the light boiling fraction has two or more of the following properties:
 a 95% boiling point temperature in the range from about 130° C. to about 200° C.;   a hydrogen content of at least 14 wt %;   a BMCI of less than 5;   an API gravity of greater than 40°;   a sulfur content of less than 1000 ppm;   a nitrogen content of less than 10 ppm;   a viscosity, measured at 40° C., of less than 1 cSt;   less than 1 wt % MCRT; and   less than 1 ppm total metals.   
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the medium boiling fraction has two or more of the following properties:
 a 5% boiling point temperature in the range from about 130° C. to about 200° C.;   a 95% boiling point temperature in the range from about 400° C. to about 600° C.;   a hydrogen content in the range from about 12 wt % to about 14 wt %;   a BMCI in the range from about 5 to less than 50;   an API gravity of in the range from about 100 to about 40°;   a sulfur content in the range from about 1000 ppm to about 10000 ppm;   a nitrogen content in the range from about 1 ppm to about 100 ppm;   a viscosity, measured at 40° C., of greater than 1 cSt;   less than 5 wt % MCRT; and   less than 50 ppm total metals.   
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the high boiling residue fraction has two or more of the following properties:
 a 5% boiling point temperature in the range from about 400° C. to about 600° C.;   a hydrogen content of less than 12 wt %;   a BMCI of greater than 50;   an API gravity of less than 10°;   a sulfur content of greater than 10000 ppm;   a nitrogen content of greater than 100 ppm;   a viscosity, measured at 100° C., of greater than 100 cSt;   greater than 5 wt % MCRT; and   greater than 50 ppm total metals.   
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the destructively hydrogenating the medium boiling fraction and the destructively hydrogenating the hydrocracked effluent comprises destructively hydrogenating the medium boiling fraction and the hydrocracked effluent in a common destructive hydrogenation unit. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the destructively hydrogenating the medium boiling fraction and the destructively hydrogenating the hydrocracked effluent comprises:
 destructively hydrogenating the medium boiling fraction in a first destructive hydrogenation unit;   destructively hydrogenating the hydrocracked effluent in a second destructive hydrogenation unit; and   combining the effluents from the first and second destructive hydrogenation units.   
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising hydrodesulfurizing a second portion of the hydrocracked effluent to produce an ultra-low sulfur fuel oil. 
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising feeding a third portion of the hydrocracked effluent to [unit  21 ], producing additional hydrocarbons in the hydrocracked effluent, an offgas stream, and a heavy FCC oil stream. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising recycling the pyrolysis oil stream to the first conditioning unit, and producing additional hydrocracked effluent. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 9 , further comprising feeding the offgas stream to the cracker product recovery unit to produce additional chemicals product and a pyrolysis oil. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 11 , further comprising feed at least a portion of the heavy FCC oil stream to the hydrodesulfurizing step. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein an overall chemicals production of the feedstock is in the range from 60 wt % to 85 wt %, based on the total amount of olefins produced as compared to a total feedstock feed rate. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the residue hydrocracking reactor comprises a slurry bed reactor or an ebullated bed reactor. 
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 8 , further comprising bypassing a portion of the high boiling residue fraction from the first condition unit, and feeding the bypassed portion of the high boiling residue fraction to the hydrodesulfurization step. 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 2 , further comprising feed a portion of the pyrolysis oil to the hydrodesulfurization step.