Patents Examined by Brandi M Doyle
  • Patent number: 10781375
    Abstract: A method for processing bitumen froth to produce a diluted bitumen product having a reduced water and solids content is provided, comprising: adding a sufficient amount of water to the bitumen froth and mixing the bitumen froth and water to form a froth/water mixture; diluting the froth/water mixture with naphtha to form a diluted froth; and separating the water and solids from the diluted froth to produce the diluted bitumen product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD. in trust for the owners of the Syncrude Project as such owners exist now and in the future
    Inventors: Yin Ming Samson Ng, Sujit Bhattacharya, Allan W. K. Leung
  • Patent number: 10767122
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for producing high-quality feedstock for a steam cracking process, said method comprising the following steps: i) providing a hydrocarbon feedstock; ii) contacting said hydrocarbon feedstock with a solvent at a dosage effective to remove aromatics and naphthenes from said feedstock forming a refined feedstock and one or more aromatics and naphthenes containing streams; iii) processing said refined feedstock in a steam cracking process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: SABIC GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES B.V.
    Inventors: Arno Johannes Maria Oprins, Raul Velasco Pelaez, Egidius Jacoba Maria Schaerlaeckens
  • Patent number: 10767117
    Abstract: Systems and methods for steam and catalytic cracking of a hydrocarbon inlet stream comprising hydrocarbons. Systems and methods can include a catalyst feed stream, where the catalyst feed stream comprises a fluid and a heterogeneous catalyst, the heterogeneous catalyst operable to catalyze cracking of the hydrocarbons on surfaces of the heterogeneous catalyst a steam feed stream, where the steam feed stream is operable to effect steam cracking of the hydrocarbons, and where the steam feed stream decreases coking of the heterogeneous catalyst; and a downflow reactor, where the downflow reactor is operable to accept and mix the hydrocarbon inlet stream, the catalyst feed stream, and the steam feed stream, where the downflow reactor is operable to produce light olefins by steam cracking and catalytic cracking, and where the downflow reactor is operable to allow the heterogeneous catalyst to flow downwardly by gravity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Wei Xu, Aaron Chi Akah
  • Patent number: 10760008
    Abstract: It has been discovered that contaminants such as metals and/or amines can be transferred from a hydrocarbon phase to a water phase in an emulsion breaking process by using a composition that contains water-soluble C5-C12 polyhydroxy carboxylic acids, ammonium salts thereof, alkali metal salts thereof, and mixtures of all of these. The composition may also optionally include a mineral acid to reduce the pH of the desalter wash water. The method permits transfer of metals and/or amines into the aqueous phase with little or no hydrocarbon phase under-carry into the aqueous phase. Resolving the emulsion into the hydrocarbon phase and the aqueous phase occurs in a refinery desalting process using electrostatic coalescence. The composition is particularly useful in treating crude oil emulsions, and in removing calcium and other metals therefrom. The polyhydroxy carboxylic acid additionally inhibits metal corrosion of metal pipe or other equipment used in a crude unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Baker Hughes, a GE company, LLC
    Inventors: Mary Jane Legaspi Felipe, Jerry J. Weers, Tran M. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 10745629
    Abstract: Waste plastics are mixed with heavy crude and vacuum residues at temperature within the range from 180-220° C. and the resulting mixture are hydroprocessed to produce lighter products. The hydrodemetallization, asphaltene conversion and hydrocracking activities of the resulting mixture have been tested in an autoclave batch reactor. This process provides a very cheap material and method to upgrade problematic feeds to produce transportation fuels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
    Inventors: Kiritika Kohli, Ravindra Prajapati, Samir Kumar Maity, Madhukar Onkarnath Garg
  • Patent number: 10717938
    Abstract: In a method of hydroprocessing, hydrogen gas for the hydroprocessing reaction is combined with a liquid feed composition comprising a feedstock to be treated and a diluent to form a feed stream, at least a portion of the hydrogen gas being dissolved in the liquid feed composition of the feed stream, with non-dissolved hydrogen gas being present in the feed stream in an amount of from 1 to 70 SCF/bbl of the liquid feed composition. The feed stream is contacted with a hydroprocessing catalyst, within a reactor while maintaining a liquid mass flux within the reactor of at least 5000 lb/hr·ft2 to form a hydroprocessed product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Duke Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Michael D. Ackerson, Michael Steven Byars
  • Patent number: 10703644
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a method for producing a treated water stream. The method includes receiving a feed stream including at least one substance dissolved in a water phase, and processing the feed water stream in a plurality of stages arranged in operation from a lowest temperature and pressure to a highest temperature and pressure, to produce the treated water stream and a concentrated stream. Each stage includes a vessel, a heat exchanger, an evaporator, and a condenser. Each evaporator is configured to evaporate an amount of water using one of direct heat or indirect heat. Each condenser is configured to condense at least a portion of steam generated by a successive stage. In accordance with various embodiments, the plurality of stages is arranged in series. In other embodiments, the plurality of stages is arranged in parallel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Mourad Victor Younes, Regis Didier Alain Vilagines, Guillaume Robert Jean-Francois Raynel
  • Patent number: 10703988
    Abstract: A system to selectively remove metal compounds and sulfur from a petroleum feedstock includes a mixing zone configured to mix a pre-heated water stream and a pre-heated petroleum feedstock to form a mixed stream, a first supercritical water reactor configured to allow conversion reactions to occur to produce an upgraded stream, a carbon dispersal zone configured to mix carbon with a make-up water stream to produce a carbon dispersed water stream, such that the carbon is dispersed in the carbon dispersed water stream, a make-up mixing zone configured to combine the upgraded stream and the carbon dispersed water stream to produce a diluted carbon dispersed stream, the carbon is operable to trap metals present in the upgraded stream, and a second supercritical water reactor configured to allow conversion reactions to occur to produce a carbon dispersed effluent stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Ki-Hyouk Choi, Ashok K. Punetha, Muneef F. Alqarzouh
  • Patent number: 10669490
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to a process for producing diesel with reduced levels of sulfur. The process involves (a) providing a diesel feed comprising a diesel having a sulfur content in the range of about 20 to about 10,000 wppm; (b) feeding the diesel feed and a hydrogen rich gas to a reaction zone comprising a hydrotreating catalyst to produce a hydrotreated diesel effluent comprising diesel and hydrogen sulfide; and (c) removing hydrogen sulfide from the hydrotreated diesel effluent to produce a diesel product having a sulfur content no more than about 100 wppm; wherein hydrogen consumption in the reaction zone is in the range of about ?150 to about 150 scf/bbl.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: DuPont Industrial Biosciences USA, LLC
    Inventor: Hasan Dindi
  • Patent number: 10655075
    Abstract: The invention provides a process for hydrotreating and dewaxing a hydrocarbon feedstock, comprising the steps of: (a) hydrotreating the feedstock under hydrotreating conditions in a first reaction zone to obtain a first stage hydrotreated effluent; and (b) introducing at least part of the first stage hydrotreated effluent into a second reaction zone in which the first stage hydrotreated effluent is subjected to a series of alternating dewaxing steps and hydrotreating steps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: SHELL OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Laurent Georges Huve, Meng Loong Chua
  • Patent number: 10647925
    Abstract: Fuels and/or fuel blending components can be formed from hydroprocessing of high lift deasphalted oil. The high lift deasphalting can correspond to solvent deasphalting to produce a yield of deasphalted oil of at least 50 wt %, or at least 65 wt %, or at least 75 wt %. The resulting fuels and/or fuel blending components formed by hydroprocessing of the deasphalted oil can have unexpectedly high naphthene content and/or density. Additionally or alternately, deasphalted oil generated from high lift deasphalting represents a disadvantaged feed that can be converted into a fuel and/or fuel blending components with unexpected compositions. Additionally or alternately, the resulting fuels and/or fuel blending components can have unexpectedly beneficial cold flow properties, such as cloud point, pour point, and/or freeze point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
    Inventors: Sheryl B. Rubin-Pitel, Kenneth Kar, Kendall S. Fruchey
  • Patent number: 10641758
    Abstract: Provided are apparatus and systems using mine spectroscopic data at various stages of the hydrocarbon extraction process. The spectrometers may be mounted on various equipment components at the various stages of the hydrocarbon extraction process to passively collect energy reflected from objects. The obtained data may be used to determine mineralogy, bitumen saturation, bitumen viscosity, and grain size distribution in the mining operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
    Inventor: Sherry L Stafford
  • Patent number: 10640712
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for the retrieval and recovery of organic-based or organic-containing materials, including naturally occurring substances such as crude oil, and other petroleum-based or containing materials, natural gas, and the like, from environments where they are entrained within or otherwise admixed or complexed with other organic or inorganic materials, such as rock, sand, shale and the like. The method comprises: retrieving a quantity of the petroleum-containing mixture, treating the petroleum-containing mixture with a solvent for the petroleum material to separate the petroleum material from the mixture, and recovering the separated petroleum-containing material. The solvent may be at approximately ambient temperature and may be, for instance, heptane, hexane, naphtha, kerosene, gasoline or a petroleum based solvent or any other suitable solvent in which the asphalt binder is soluble.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Inventors: Stojan Kotefski, Michael Fitzpatrick, Kevin Thomas Fitzpatrick, Michelle Kotevska, Kailey Marie Fitzpatrick
  • Patent number: 10640717
    Abstract: Methods and systems for recovering a hydrocarbon from fluid catalytic cracking (“FCC”) slurry and for separating a FCC slurry stream from a FCC effluent are provided. An exemplary hydrocarbon recovery method comprises the steps of: contacting a feed with a catalyst in a FCC reactor under conditions suitable to crack one or more hydrocarbons and generate a FCC effluent; separating the FCC effluent with a fractionation column to generate a product stream and a FCC slurry that collects in a lower portion of the fractionation column; drawing a first FCC slurry stream at a first temperature from a first location in the fractionation column; drawing a second FCC slurry stream at a second temperature from a second location in the fractionation column, and separating a hydrocarbon from the second FCC slurry stream, wherein the second temperature is higher than the first temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: UOP LLC
    Inventor: Matthew R. Wojtowicz
  • Patent number: 10633602
    Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to scavenging hydrogen sulfide. The disclosure pertains to non-aqueous and non-volatile compositions that include a monolignol alcohol and hydrogen sulfide scavenging compound. The hydrogen sulfide scavenging compound may be hexamine in some aspects. The compositions may also include a C2-8 polyol. The compositions disclosed are stable and can be used, for example, in removing hydrogen sulfide from hot asphalt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: ECOLAB USA INC.
    Inventor: Kim R. Solomon
  • Patent number: 10626333
    Abstract: A process and apparatus for sweetening a hydrocarbon stream. The apparatus includes two vessels. In a first extraction vessel, caustic removes mercaptans from the hydrocarbon stream. In a second oxidation vessel, the mercaptans in the rich caustic are converted in disulfides. The lean caustic and disulfides are passed back to the first extraction vessel in which the disulfides are separated into the sweetened hydrocarbon phase. The second vessel may receive a wash oil, such as the sweetened hydrocarbon phase, to remove disulfides from a vented gas stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: UOP LLC
    Inventors: July S. Maglente, Luigi Laricchia, Jonathan A. Tertel
  • Patent number: 10584291
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for catalytic hydroprocessing to form lubricant base oils. The methods can include performing high pressure hydrofinishing after fractionating the hydrotreated and/or hydrocracked and/or dewaxed effluent. Performing hydrofinishing after fractionation can allow the high hydrogen pressure for hydrofinishing to be used on one or more lubricant base oil fractions that are desirable for high pressure hydrofinishing. This can allow for improved aromatic saturation of a lubricant base oil product while reducing or minimizing the hydrogen consumption. The high pressure hydrofinishing can be performed at a hydrogen partial pressure of at least about 2500 psig (˜17.2 Mpa), or at least about 2600 psig (˜18.0 Mpa), or at least about 3000 psig (˜20.6 MPa). The high pressure hydrofinishing can allow for formation of a lubricant base oil product with a reduced or minimized aromatics content, a reduced or minimized 3-ring aromatics content, or a combination thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
    Inventors: Bradley R. Fingland, Gary P. Schleicher
  • Patent number: 10577546
    Abstract: Processes for producing deasphalted oil are provided which involve combining a supercritical water stream with a pressurized, heated, hydrocarbon-based composition to create a combined feed stream, introducing the combined feed stream to a supercritical reactor to produce and upgraded product, and depressurizing the upgraded product. The depressurized upgraded product is separated into a light and a heavy fraction, where the heavy fraction has a greater concentration of asphaltene than the light fraction. The light fraction is passed to a separator to separate into a gas fraction, a paraffinic fraction, and a water fraction and the heavy fraction and the paraffinic fraction are combined to remove the asphaltene and produce deasphalted oil. In some embodiments, the paraffinic fraction is dewatered before combining with the heavy fraction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Ki-Hyouk Choi, Mazin M. Fathi, Abdullah T. Alabdulhadi
  • Patent number: 10563140
    Abstract: An installation and a process which jointly implement compression of acid gases from a hydroconversion or hydrotreatment unit and gaseous effluents from a catalytic cracking unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: AXENS
    Inventors: Odile Lajeunesse, Nicolas Lambert, Jacinthe Frecon, Jerome Pigourier
  • Patent number: 10544369
    Abstract: A process for treating a bitumen froth comprising bitumen, solids and water to produce a deasphalted oil product is provided comprising optionally diluting the raw bitumen froth with a diluent to form a diluted bitumen froth; separating the raw or diluted bitumen froth into a light bitumen fraction and a heavy bitumen fraction comprising bitumen, fine solids and water; mixing the heavy bitumen fraction with a first solvent to form a solvent/bitumen mixture; and introducing the solvent/bitumen mixture into a first extraction vessel operating at a temperature and a pressure such that the solvent is at or near supercritical conditions to form a heavy phase comprising asphaltenes, solids and water and a light phase comprising deasphalted oil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD, in trust for the owners of the Syncrude Project as such owners exist now and in the future
    Inventors: Daniel Bulbuc, Keng Chung, David Childs