Treating \"heavy\" materials as if they were light: the function of slurry-bed hydroprocessing of crude oil residues in producing \"blood\"

Thread Content

The country’s reliance on imported crude oil has risen to the level of a **energy security issue**; during his inspection in Chongqing, the General Secretary emphasized energy security and stressed the necessity of finding alternative sources of energy. Slurry-bed hydroprocessing of residue oil has come into the public spotlight at an appropriate time, and its ability to efficiently convert heavy oil into \"artificial\" oil fields demonstrates the transformative power of this slurry-bed technology – namely, its capacity to generate the \"blood\" necessary for both the earth and industry! Slurry-bed residue hydrogenation can convert asphaltene, shale oil, asphalt, organic waste, and similar materials into methane- and ethane-rich dry gas, LPG, naphtha, diesel, wax oil, and oil residues similar to those obtained from oil fields. The subsequent processing methods can be integrated seamlessly with existing facilities; light hydrocarbon ethylene cracking, as well as medium-range oil catalytic cracking and hydrocracking, can be used to produce petrochemical intermediates such as ethylene, propylene, and benzene/PX. This represents a circular economy approach that offers the shortest process and minimal changes for converting oil into fuels, materials, or specialty products. The slurry-bed residue hydrogenation circulating tubular reactor shares similarities with the catalytic cracking riser reactor; the slurry-bed reactor still falls under the category of gas-liquid-solid phase reaction kinetics and thermodynamics. The difference from the riser reactor lies in the use of liquids for transporting and mixing solids, and it involves interactions between radical reactions and carbocation reactions as well.