AM-06-18 Economic Extraction of FCC Feedstock from Residual Oils

Description:

Increasing differential cost between light and heavy crude oils and increasing demand for refined petroleum products have led to a surge in new deasphalting unit installations. Deasphalting units allow refiners to either switch to heavier, less expensive crude oils or to dig deeper into bottom of the barrel, at minimum investment cost. The deasphalting process is particularly adept at producing good quality FCC feedstock from highly contaminated crude oils because the selective partitioning of contaminants between the deasphalted oil and asphaltene fraction is favorable for contaminants that are the most detrimental to FCC operations, e.g. metals > carbon residue > nitrogen > sulfur. The right combination of solvent deasphalting followed by the FCC will offer new opportunities in improving profitability to refiners.