Patents by Inventor Aaron Chi Akah
Aaron Chi Akah has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20240124317Abstract: A process of producing a mesoporous beta zeolite includes mixing a crystalline beta zeolite with one or more solvents, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, and metal hydroxide to produce a solution, heating the solution at a temperature of from 50° C. to 150° C. to convert the crystalline beta zeolite to a non-crystalline material with reduced silica content relative to the crystalline beta zeolite, cooling the solution to a temperature of from 25° C. to 40° C., adjusting the pH of the solution to from 8 to 10 by adding an acid, and aging the solution at a temperature of from 50° C. to 150° C. for a time period sufficient to crystalize the non-crystalline material to produce beta zeolite particles.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 12, 2022Publication date: April 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Veera Venkata Ramakrishna Tammana
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Patent number: 11959031Abstract: An integrated process and associated system for conversion of crude oil to value added petrochemicals. The process includes separating crude oil into light and heavy crude fractions and processing the heavy fraction in a solvent deasphalting unit and a delayed coker unit, and then providing the light fraction and selected effluents of the solvent deasphalting unit and the delayed coker unit to a hydrotreater. The process further includes separating the effluent of the hydrotreater to generate a C1 fraction passed to a methane cracker, a C2 fraction passed to an ethane steam cracker, a C3-C4 fraction passed to a dehydrogenation reactor, a hydrotreated light fraction passed to an aromatization unit, and a hydrotreated heavy fraction passed to a steam enhanced catalytic cracking unit. The process further includes separating effluents of the various unit operations into product streams including a BTX stream and a light olefin stream.Type: GrantFiled: September 19, 2022Date of Patent: April 16, 2024Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Essa Alnaimi, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami
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Patent number: 11939533Abstract: Methods and systems for producing aromatics and light olefins from a mixed plastics stream are described. The method may include feeding a plastic feedstock to a dechlorination operation to melt the plastic feedstock to release HCl and generate a liquid plastic stream; feeding the liquid plastic stream to a pyrolysis reactor, the pyrolysis reactor to generate hydrocarbon vapors; feeding the hydrocarbon vapors to an acid gas removal reactor with a solid inorganic alkali salt disposed within the reaction vessel to remove residual HCl and sulfur-containing compounds from the hydrocarbon vapors to generate a plastic derived oil; and feeding the plastic derived oil to a fluid catalytic cracking reactor to generate a product stream comprising light olefins having a carbon number of C2-C4 and aromatics. The associated system for processing mixed plastics into aromatics and light olefins is also described.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2023Date of Patent: March 26, 2024Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventor: Aaron Chi Akah
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Patent number: 11939541Abstract: In accordance with one or more embodiments herein, an integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a delayed coker, steam enhanced catalytic cracker, and an aromatics complex includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream; delayed coking the heavy residual hydrocarbons; hydrotreating the delayed coker product stream and the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; passing at least a portion of the light steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, the heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, or both to a product separator to produce a olefin product stream, a naphtha product stream, and a BTX product stream; and processing the naphtha product stream in the aromatics complex to produce benzene and xylenes.Type: GrantFiled: July 15, 2022Date of Patent: March 26, 2024Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Qi Xu, Aaron Chi Akah, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240093103Abstract: An integrated process and associated system for conversion of crude oil to value added petrochemicals. The process includes separating crude oil into light and heavy crude fractions and processing the heavy fraction in a solvent deasphalting unit and a delayed coker unit, and then providing the light fraction and selected effluents of the solvent deasphalting unit and the delayed coker unit to a hydrotreater. The process further includes separating the effluent of the hydrotreater to generate a C1 fraction passed to a methane cracker, a C2 fraction passed to an ethane steam cracker, a C3-C4 fraction passed to a dehydrogenation reactor, a hydrotreated light fraction passed to an aromatization unit, and a hydrotreated heavy fraction passed to a steam enhanced catalytic cracking unit. The process further includes separating effluents of the various unit operations into product streams including a BTX stream and a light olefin stream.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 19, 2022Publication date: March 21, 2024Inventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Essa Alnaimi, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami
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Patent number: 11896963Abstract: A process for upgrading a hydrocarbon feed includes contacting the hydrocarbon feed with steam in the presence of a cracking catalyst at reaction conditions sufficient to cause at least a portion of hydrocarbons in the hydrocarbon feed to undergo one or more cracking reactions to produce a steam catalytic cracking effluent comprising light olefins, light aromatic compounds, or both. The cracking catalyst is hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite. The hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite is made by providing a starting ZSM-5 zeolite, disintegrating the a portion of the starting ZSM-5 in the presence of a surfactant using sodium hydroxide, and then recrystallizing the zeolite constituents in the presence of the surfactant to produce recrystallized ZSM-5 zeolite. The recrystallized ZSM-5 zeolite is then recovered and calcined to produce the hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2022Date of Patent: February 13, 2024Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Veera Venkata Ramakrishna Tammana
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Publication number: 20240018431Abstract: In accordance with one or more embodiments herein, an integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a delayed coker, steam enhanced catalytic cracker, and an aromatics complex includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream; delayed coking the heavy residual hydrocarbons; hydrotreating the delayed coker product stream and the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; passing at least a portion of the light steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, the heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, or both to a product separator to produce a olefin product stream, a naphtha product stream, and a BTX product stream; and processing the naphtha product stream in the aromatics complex to produce benzene and xylenes.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Qi Xu, Aaron Chi Akah, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018429Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a delayed coker and steam enhanced catalytic cracker includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream to form at least a deasphalted oil stream and heavy residual hydrocarbons, the heavy residual hydrocarbons including at least asphaltenes; delayed coking the heavy residual hydrocarbons to form petroleum coke and a delayed coker product stream; hydrotreating the delayed coker product stream and the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a light steam enhanced catalytically cracked product stream including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof; and steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked product including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018432Abstract: In accordance with one or more embodiments herein, an integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a gasification unit, steam enhanced catalytic cracker, and an aromatics complex includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream; processing the heavy residual hydrocarbons in a gasification unit to form syngas and gasification residue; hydrotreating the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; passing at least a portion of the light steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, the heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, or both to a product separator to produce a olefin product stream, a naphtha product stream, and a BTX product stream; and processing the naphtha product stream in the aromatics complex to produce benzene and xylenes.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Qi Xu, Aaron Chi Akah, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018434Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream; processing the heavy residual hydrocarbons in a gasification unit to form syngas and gasification residue; hydrotreating the deasphalted oil stream to form a C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream, a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; dehydrogenating the C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream to form propylene and butylene; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; passing at least a portion of the light steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, the heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, or both to a product separator to produce a olefin product stream, a naphtha product stream, and a BTX product stream; and processing the naphtha product stream in the aromatics complex to produce benzene and xylenes.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Qi Xu, Aaron Chi Akah, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018430Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream to form at least a deasphalted oil stream and heavy residual hydrocarbons, delayed coking the heavy residual hydrocarbons to form petroleum coke and a delayed coker product stream; hydrotreating the delayed coker product stream and the deasphalted oil stream to form a C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream, a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy c5+ hydrocarbon stream; dehydrogenating the C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream to form propylene and butylene; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a light steam enhanced catalytically cracked product stream including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof; and steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked product including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018428Abstract: A process for the conversion of a petroleum feed to light olefins may comprise pretreating the petroleum feed to form one or more pretreated petroleum feeds and fractionating the one or more pretreated petroleum feeds to form a methane stream, an ethane stream, a C3-C4 stream, a light liquid fraction, and a heavy liquid fraction. The process may further comprise methane cracking the methane stream to form hydrogen, steam cracking the ethane stream to form a steam cracking product; dehydrogenating the C3-C4 stream to form a dehydrogenated stream; and steam enhanced catalytic cracking (SECC) the light liquid fraction and the heavy liquid fraction to form an SECC product.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018427Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a gasification unit and steam enhanced catalytic cracker includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream to form at least a deasphalted oil stream and heavy residual hydrocarbons, the heavy residual hydrocarbons including at least asphaltenes; processing the heavy residual hydrocarbons in a gasification unit to form syngas and gasification residue; hydrotreating the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a light steam enhanced catalytically cracked product stream including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof; and steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked product including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20240018433Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a delayed coker, steam enhanced catalytic cracker, and an aromatics complex includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream; delayed coking the heavy residual hydrocarbons; hydrotreating the delayed coker product stream and the deasphalted oil stream to form a C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream, a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; dehydrogenating the C3-C4 hydrocarbon stream to form propylene and butylene; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; passing at least a portion of the light steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, the heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked stream, or both to a product separator to produce a olefin product stream, a naphtha product stream, and a BTX product stream; and processing the naphtha product stream in the aromatics complex to produce benzene and xylenes.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2022Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Qi Xu, Aaron Chi Akah, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Patent number: 11857955Abstract: A process of producing a catalyst comprises forming mesoporous beta zeolite particles, impregnating mesoporous beta zeolite particles with a metal and phosphorus to produce a metal and phosphorus impregnated zeolite, and incorporating the metal and phosphorus impregnated zeolite with clay and alumina to produce the catalyst. The forming step comprises converting a crystalline beta zeolite to a non-crystalline material with reduced silica content relative to the crystalline beta zeolite, and crystalizing the non-crystalline material to produce mesoporous beta zeolite particles.Type: GrantFiled: October 12, 2022Date of Patent: January 2, 2024Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Veera Venkata Ramakrishna Tammana
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Patent number: 11851622Abstract: An integrated process for upgrading a hydrocarbon oil feed stream utilizing a gasification unit and steam enhanced catalytic cracker includes solvent deasphalting the hydrocarbon oil stream to form at least a deasphalted oil stream and heavy residual hydrocarbons, the heavy residual hydrocarbons including at least asphaltenes; processing the heavy residual hydrocarbons in a gasification unit to form syngas and gasification residue; hydrotreating the deasphalted oil stream to form a light C5+ hydrocarbon stream, and a heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream; steam enhanced catalytically cracking the light C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a light steam enhanced catalytically cracked product stream including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof; and steam enhanced catalytically cracking the heavy C5+ hydrocarbon stream to form a heavy steam enhanced catalytically cracked product including olefins, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphtha, or combinations thereof.Type: GrantFiled: July 15, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Patent number: 11820948Abstract: A process for upgrading crude oil through steam enhanced catalytic cracking includes contacting crude oil with steam and a cracking catalyst at a mass ratio of steam to crude oil of 0.2-1. The cracking catalyst is a hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite impregnated with phosphorous, cerium, lanthanum, and iron. Contacting the crude oil with steam and the cracking catalyst cracks a portion of the crude oil to produce light olefins, light aromatic compounds, or both. The cracking catalyst is prepared by partially disintegrating a starting ZSM-5 zeolite in a first mixture comprising sodium hydroxide and a surfactant and, after the disintegrating, recrystallizing zeolite constituents in the presence of the surfactant to produce a recrystallized ZSM-5 zeolite having a hierarchical pore structure. The recrystallized ZSM-5 zeolite is recovered and calcined to produce the hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite, which is then impregnated with the phosphorous, lanthanum, cerium, and iron.Type: GrantFiled: September 29, 2022Date of Patent: November 21, 2023Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Veera Venkata Ramakrishna Tammana
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Patent number: 11820950Abstract: An integrated process and associated system for conversion of crude oil to value added petrochemicals. The process includes separating crude oil into light and heavy crude fractions and processing the heavy fraction in a solvent deasphalting unit and a delayed coker unit, and then providing the light fraction and selected effluents of the solvent deasphalting unit and the delayed coker unit to a hydrotreater. The process further includes separating the effluent of the hydrotreater to generate a C1 fraction passed to a methane cracker, a C2-C4 fraction passed to a steam cracker, a hydrotreated light fraction passed to an aromatization unit, and a hydrotreated heavy fraction passed to a steam enhanced catalytic cracking unit. The process further includes separating effluents of the methane cracker, the steam cracker, the aromatization unit, and the steam enhanced catalytic cracking unit into product streams including a BTX stream and a light olefin stream.Type: GrantFiled: June 16, 2022Date of Patent: November 21, 2023Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Essa Alnaimi, Qi Xu, Musaed Salem Al-Ghrami, Zhonglin Zhang
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Publication number: 20230365870Abstract: Methods and systems for producing aromatics and light olefins from a mixed plastics stream are described. The method may include feeding a plastic feedstock to a dechlorination operation to melt the plastic feedstock to release HCl and generate a liquid plastic stream; feeding the liquid plastic stream to a pyrolysis reactor, the pyrolysis reactor to generate hydrocarbon vapors; feeding the hydrocarbon vapors to an acid gas removal reactor with a solid inorganic alkali salt disposed within the reaction vessel to remove residual HCl and sulfur-containing compounds from the hydrocarbon vapors to generate a plastic derived oil; and feeding the plastic derived oil to a fluid catalytic cracking reactor to generate a product stream comprising light olefins having a carbon number of C2-C4 and aromatics. The associated system for processing mixed plastics into aromatics and light olefins is also described.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 27, 2023Publication date: November 16, 2023Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventor: Aaron Chi Akah
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Patent number: 11760943Abstract: A process for upgrading a hydrocarbon feed includes contacting the hydrocarbon feed with steam in the presence of a cracking catalyst in a steam catalytic cracking reactor at reaction conditions sufficient to cause at least a portion of hydrocarbons in the hydrocarbon feed to undergo one or more cracking reactions to produce a steam catalytic cracking effluent comprising light olefins, light aromatic compounds, or both, where the cracking catalyst comprises a ZSM-11 zeolite.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2022Date of Patent: September 19, 2023Assignees: Saudi Arabian Oil Company, King Fahd University of Petroleum and MineralsInventors: Aaron Chi Akah, Ziyauddin S. Qureshi, Abdullah M. Aitani, Siddiqui M. Abdulbari