Centrifugal Reactive-Molecular Distillation from High-Boiling-Point Petroleum Fractions. 2. Recent Experiments in Pilot-Scale for Upgrading of a Heavy Feedstock

This work deals with the development of experimental campaign to accomplish the upgrading of a high-boiling-point petroleum fraction (atmospheric residue ATR-W 673.15 K+ with API gravity equals 11.9 and molar mass equals 2956 kg·kmol–1) by centrifugal reactive-molecular distillation (CRMD). In this process, 30 fractions (15 distillates and 15 residues) were obtained under different operating conditions. HT-SimDis GC played an important role to evaluate the conversion degree. Furthermore, physicochemical properties and colloidal characterization were determined by ASTM standard methods and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) with UV–absorption detection, respectively. The pilot-scale experiments by the CRMD process showed that it successfully upgraded the feedstock into two process streams named as distillate and residue streams using 3 and 5 wt % of zeolite-based catalyst at 483.15 K and pressure system below 50.0 Pa. Under these conditions, in the distillate streams the conversion of ATR-W 673.15 K+ was ...