Title: Upgrading of light cycle oil for ultra low sulphur diesel production by a solvent extraction procedure

Authors: Georgina C. Laredo; Pedro Martin Vega-Merino; Patricia Pérez-Romo; Ricardo Agueda-Rangel

Addresses: Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Gerencia de Separación de Hidrocarburos, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, México ' Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Gerencia de Separación de Hidrocarburos, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, México ' Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Gerencia de Separación de Hidrocarburos, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, México ' Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Gerencia de Separación de Hidrocarburos, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, México

Abstract: The upgrading of light cycle oil (LCO) present in straight run gas oil/light cycle oil mixtures (SRGO/LCO) was studied by an extraction procedure, using acetone/water (AW) combinations. The effect of the experimental conditions (LCO content in the SRGO/LCO mixtures and water content in the acetone/water solution) was studied firstly in batch experiments. The effectiveness of the procedure was carried out by measuring nitrogen removal as the distribution coefficient (DN) and raffinate yield as the percentage of weight change (WCh, wt.%), setting high DN and near zero WCh values as goals, which were reached with a water in acetone mixture of 5/95 (AW5). Considering these results, a counter current system was implemented with the AW5 mixture as solvent with a solvent/feed ratio of two. SRGO/LCO mixtures up to 60/40 represented feedstocks with nitrogen, sulphur and aromatic hydrocarbon contents that may provide a specification complying diesel after the upcoming hydrotreatment (HDT) process. [Received: October 12, 2017; Accepted: December 1, 2017]

Keywords: light cycle oil; LCO; ultra low sulphur diesel; upgrading; extraction; hydrodesulfurisation; hydrodenitrogenation; hydrodearomatisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2019.103069

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2019 Vol.22 No.3, pp.315 - 331

Received: 12 Oct 2017
Accepted: 01 Dec 2017

Published online: 15 Oct 2019 *

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