The need for upgrading refining residues has become an economic necessity for refiners. If the targeted group of products is middle distillates, we favor the patented Genoil Upgrading fixed bed reactor technology because of its outstanding price/performance ratio:

• High Liquid Yields – more than 85 wt % of Feed
• Self Sufficient (if desired) for H2, Power, Steam, Fuel Gas, Air, Water
• Bottomless Design – No Waste Oil
• Environmental Friendly
• Low Capital Cost
• Low Operating Cost – US$ 4 /BBL
• GHU Patented Technology (Canada Patent No. 2306069, US No. 7001502 Process for treating crude using hydrogen in aspecial unit, Special unit is a reactor that through high temperatures and high pressures breaks down the hydrocarbon molecules and adds hydrogen to the molecule. US 7510689, US 8147677 Method and apparatus for introducing fluids into a hydrocracking reactor.
• Technology offers Large API Increases
• Viscosity reduction -99 %
• Superb sulfur reduction – up to 99.5 %
• Consistent pitch conversion level 93 %
• Demetalization rates -98 %
• Conradson Carbon Reduction – 87 %
• Denitrogenation rate of -53 %

The Fixed Bed Process

Fixed bed and ebullating bed systems were developed in the 1960s for the desulphurization of residues to make low-sulphur fuel oils. Additional units continue to be built, but the emphasis has shifted to the hydrotreating / hydroconversion of heavy oil and residues to gas oils and the preparation of reduced metals, reduced asphaltene FCC or other refinery feeds.

The development of new and improved hydroprocessing catalytic cracking technologies has been possible because of the development of new and improved catalysts. Catalysts have been developed by process licensors and by catalyst vendors for specific needs such as hydrodemetallization (HDM), hydrosulphuration (HDS), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), and hydrocracking (HYC) at elevated pressure in fixed bed, ebullating bed or slurry phase reactors.

Fixed bed units have long been utilized for hydrodesulphurization, hydrodenitrogenation and hydroprocessing of distillates. When operating on heavy crude oil, bitumen or residues, the process and the catalyst must contend with higher metals (Ni and V) and higher asphaltenes content. These tend to deposit on the catalyst, deactivating and plugging the catalyst, and reducing the catalyst’s life and run length.

The Genoil GHU™ can be utilized to upgrade heavy oil, and refinery residue streams, and for hydroprocessing naphtha, kerosene, diesel and vacuum gas oil. The Genoil movable plus fixed bed system will have a reactor sequence and catalyst distribution to protect the more active hydroprocessing catalyst. The first bed is an HDM guard bed to remove metals from the feed followed by an HDS, or a combination of HDM and HDS beds to protect the more active hydroconversion catalyst (HYC) beds in the second reactor upgrading the residues. If the feed is of a quality wherein the HDM guard bed is not required, the entire hydroconversion process can be processed through a single reactor. The unconverted residue formed after hydroprocessing through the fixed beds can be sent to a Syntheses Gas unit, gasified, and the syntheses gas can then be used for hydrogen production and fuel gas to generate power and steam.

Using high activity hydrotreating catalysts and proprietary design technology, Genoil has conducted multiple pilot plant tests on various bitumen feedstocks ranging from 6.5º to 17.5º API gravity. The operating conditions (pressure, temperature, space velocity) were selected to achieve a minimum one-year cycle while maintaining maximum conversion of the vacuum residue fraction of the feed.

Typically, the Genoil GHU™ operating conditions were substantially milder (pressure, space velocity) than competitive processes such as fixed bed hydroprocessing, and the conversion of the vacuum residue fraction with the GHU™ process was also much higher while avoiding precipitation of asphaltenes.

For example, when processing crude extracted from Western Canada tar sands using the GHU™ technology, with the addition of a distillation unit after the GHU™ and using the residue to feed a syntheses gas unit, the API can be increased again from 24º to at least 34º API.