(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 9.480,963 B2 Kelkar Et Al
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USOO9480963B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 9.480,963 B2 Kelkar et al. (45) Date of Patent: Nov. 1, 2016 (54) THERMO-CATALYTIC CRACKING FOR 2300/4056 (2013.01); CIOL 2200/0438 CONVERSION OF HIGHER (2013.01); CIOL 2200/0453 (2013.01); CIOL HYDROCARBONS INTO LOWER 2200/0469 (2013.01); CIOL 2200/0484 HYDROCARBONS (2013.01); CIOL 2290/06 (2013.01); (Continued) (71) Applicant: Innovative Energy Solutions, Inc., (58) Field of Classification Search Ames, IA (US) CPC ............................ B01J 19/1887; C10G 11/10 See application file for complete search history. (72) Inventors: Atul G. Kelkar, Ames, IA (US); Prasad V. Bhat, Mumbai Maharashtra (56) References Cited (IN) U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 3,316,958 A * 5/1967 Johnston ................ BO1D 1,225 159/62 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. 3,334,680 A 8, 1967 McManus (21) Appl. No.: 14/549,330 (Continued) (22) Filed: Nov. 20, 2014 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS (65) Prior Publication Data EP O 247 678 B1 2, 1990 EP O 6O7862 T 1994 US 2015/0080625 A1 Mar. 19, 2015 (Continued) Related U.S. Application Data OTHER PUBLICATIONS (63) Continuation of application No. 12/819,137, filed on Yoon, International Search Report and Written Opinion of the Jun. 18, 2010, now Pat. No. 8,895,796. International Searching Authority issued to International Patent (60) Provisional application No. 61/218,579, filed on Jun. Application No. PCT/US2010/039 179 on Feb. 25, 2011, 10 pgs. 19, 2009. (Continued) (51) Int. C. Primary Examiner — Lessanework Seifu BOI. I./8 (2006.01) (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Foley & Lardner LLP: CIOG I/00 (2006.01) Cliff Z. Liu; Angela D. Murch (Continued) (52) U.S. Cl. (57) ABSTRACT CPC ......... B01J 19/1887 (2013.01); B01J 19/0066 Described herein are processes and related devices and (2013.01): CI0G I/002 (2013.01); CIOG systems for the conversion of higher hydrocarbons, such as I/083 (2013.01): CI0G 1/10 (2013.01); CIOG in the form of waste plastics, petroleum sludge, slope oil, II/14 (2013.01); C10G 57/005 (2013.01); vegetable oil, and so forth, into lower hydrocarbons, which CI0G 57/02 (2013.01); C10G 63/04 can be used as fuels or raw materials for a variety of (2013.01); CIOL I/04 (2013.01); B01.J industrial and domestic uses. 2219/00094 (2013.01); C10G 2300/1003 (2013.01); C10G 2300/1014 (2013.01); CIOG 13 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets US 9,480,963 B2 Page 2 (51) Int. Cl. 6,774,272 B2 8, 2004 Miller CIOG I/08 (2006.01) 8,563wwk "38 RealOle a CIOG L/10 (2006.01) 7,034,198 B2 4/2006 Osada et al. CIOG II/4 (2006.01) 7,276.148 B2 10/2007 Plopski BOI. I./00 (2006.01) 2001/0027.936 A1 10, 2001 Morel et al. CIOG 57/00 (2006.01) 2002/0170848 A1 11, 2002 Mohr et al. CIOG 57/02 (2006.01) 2003, OO19789 A1 1, 2003 Kwak CIOG 63/04 (2006.01) 2004.0043445 A1 3/2004 Daniels 2006/0011514 A1 1/2006 van den Berge et al. CIOL L/04 (2006.01) 2006/0096890 A1 5/2006 Pankaj et al. (52) U.S. Cl. 2006/0147357 A1 7/2006 Leveson CPC ........ CI0L 2290/24 (2013.01); CIOL 2290/46 2007/0179326 A1 8, 2007 Baker (2013.01); CIOL 2290/562 (2013.01); Y02P 2007/0284284 A1 12/2007 Zones et al. • u. fs • u. fs 2009/0050525 A1* 2/2009 Sappok .................... C10G 1/10 30/20 (2015.11) 208/106 2010, 0004419 A1 1/2010 Hassan et al. (56) References Cited 2010/0326887 A1 12/2010 McGehee et al. U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,093.479 A * 6/1978 Baird ..................... BOD 1,226 JP 04-05O293 2, 1992 159,132 JP 06-256769 9, 1994 4,108,730 A 8, 1978 Chen et al. JP 08-034978 2, 1996 4,143,086 A 3, 1979 Carle et al. JP 08-113786 5, 1996 4,166,773. A 9/1979 Higley et al. JP 08-143871 6, 1996 4,218,306 A 8, 1980 Gross et al. JP 2000-297 176 10, 2000 4,806,210 A 2f1989 Van Lier JP 2007-529574. A 10/2007 5,079,385 A 1/1992 Wu JP 2007-332345 12/2007 5,110,446 A 5, 1992 Harandi et al. JP 2008-531799 8, 2008 5,216,149 A 6, 1993 Evans et al. WO WO 2006/092306 A1 * 9, 2006 5,300,704 A 4, 1994 Evans et al. WO WO-2006/092306 A1 9, 2006 5,321, 174 A 6, 1994 Evans et al. 5,326,919 A 7/1994 Paisley et al. 5,359,061 A 10/1994 Evans et al. OTHER PUBLICATIONS 5,359,099 A 10, 1994 Evans et al. 5,464,602 A 11/1995 Evans et al. Partial Supplementary European Search Report on European Appli 3:13; A R.E. M al. cation No. 10790267.8 dated Apr. 24, 2015, 7 pages. 5821553 A 10, 1998 E. al Office action issued in Canadian Patent Application No. 2,765.480 6,011, 187 A 1/2000 Horizoe et al. dated Apr. 8, 2016, 3 pages. 6,172,271 B 1/2001 Horizoe et al. 6,193,780 B 2, 2001 Cases Rocati et al. * cited by examiner U.S. Patent Nov. 1, 2016 Sheet 1 of 9 US 9,480,963 B2 {ZZZZZZZ U.S. Patent Nov. 1, 2016 Sheet 2 of 9 US 9,480,963 B2 & . 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U.S. Patent Nov. 1, 2016 Sheet 9 Of 9 US 9,480,963 B2 S sxx s Sas s s E E. : s X US 9,480,963 B2 1. 2 THERMO-CATALYTIC CRACKING FOR number of process design challenges, such as designing a CONVERSION OF HIGHER cracking device to achieve optimal heat transfer area, selec HYDROCARBONS INTO LOWER tion of a heating medium, avoiding or reducing under HYDROCARBONS utilization of heat transfer area typically encountered in a batch processing mode due to depleting level of feedstock, CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED effective removal of residue in the cracking device that can APPLICATION lead to poor heat transfer, and mitigating coke formation on a heat transfer Surface of the cracking device. These chal This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. lenges hinder the ability to scale up equipment size for No. 12/819,137, filed on Jun. 18, 2010, which claims the 10 commercially viable plants. benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/218,579, filed It is against this background that a need arose to develop on Jun. 19, 2009, the disclosures of which are incorporated the process for thermo-catalytic cracking and related devices herein by reference in their entirety. and systems described herein. 15 FIELD OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY The invention relates generally to the processing of hydrocarbons. More particularly, the invention relates to the Certain aspects of the invention relate to a batch, semi conversion of higher hydrocarbons, such as in the form of continuous, or substantially continuous process for the con waste plastics, petroleum sludge, slope oil, vegetable oil, version of higher hydrocarbons into lower hydrocarbons. In furnace oil, edible oil, rubber products, and so forth, into one embodiment, the process includes: (a) providing a lower hydrocarbons, which can be used as fuels or raw feedstock in the form of higher hydrocarbons and including materials for a variety of industrial and domestic uses. at least one solid raw material and at least one liquid raw material and converting the feedstock into a liquid or a BACKGROUND 25 semi-liquid phase; (b) bringing a temperature of the feed stock to a prescribed level; (c) cracking the feedstock in the Pyrolytic cracking and thermo-catalytic cracking have presence of a first set of catalysts at a temperature lower than been used to convert waste plastics, petroleum sludge, slope a natural pyrolysis temperature of the feedstock; (d) evapo oil, and vegetable oil into lower hydrocarbons. However, rating the cracked feedstock into a gaseous phase; (e) many of the processes and devices used to achieve this 30 restructuring the cracked feedstock in the gaseous phase in conversion have failed to produce useful end products the presence of a second set of catalysts to produce a efficiently and economically to be commercially viable. restructured gaseous product; (f) condensing the restruc Pyrolytic cracking typically refers to a process in which tured gaseous product to produce a desired end product; and higher hydrocarbons are heated to elevated temperatures of (g) removing unevaporated and uncracked residues. Other up to about 800° C. at which chemical bonds break to form 35 aspects of the invention relate to devices and systems for lower hydrocarbons. To achieve these elevated tempera carrying out the conversion of higher hydrocarbons into tures, a large amount of energy is involved.