Objective
Aim of the project "Primary upgrading of heavy oil" is the demonstration and further development of VEBA OEL's residue hydrocracking technologies in a pilot plant scale (24 t/d). VEBA OEL's resid cracking processes "VEBA-LQ-Cracking" (VLC) and "VEBA-Combi-Cracking" (VCC) are derived from the former Bergius-Pier-Technology for the liquefaction of coal which was used for residue upgrading between 1951 and 1964 in a commercial scale. A further improvement of the processes was evaluated in process development units since 1979 (phase 1 of the project) and the resulting processes had to be tested in the larger scale. For this purpose VEBA OEL together with LURGI GmbH erected the VLC/VCC Pilot Plant at their Gelsenkirchen refinery (phase 2 of the project). The plant was ready for start up in June 1983.
The test runs of the plant prove that residue conversion levels up to 95 % can be achieved for various feedstocks. In parallel a throughput increase and a pressure reduction is feasable thus improving the economy of the process. The use of a one way additive supports these process improvements. Product yields and properties fit with the results gained in small scale units.
The results of a long term test lasting more than 1000 h were used as design data for the engineering of a commercial size VCC upgrader (phase 4).
Phase 3 of the project "Primary upgrading of heavy oil" covers the operation of the pilot plant until end of 1984 with the target to confirm the evaluated process improvement in the larger scale, to supply reliable layout data for a commercial VCC plant, to train personal and to process residues from different sources for the generation of guarantee data.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
45896 Gelsenkirchen
Germany