Demetallization of heavy oil petroleum fractions (asphaltenes) is required in order to eliminate undesirable metalloporphyrins present in these streams. The high level of metal contaminants in these fractions cause fouling, catalyst deactivation and other problems in downstream refining processes. Various metals are removed with varying degrees of difficulty using upgrading processes. Nickel and vanadium metalloporphyrins are more resistant to removal than other metals such as iron.
The inventors of US Patent 9,505,987 (29-Nov-2016) found that using Aliquat 336 as phase-transfer catalyst and tungstic acid with phosphoric acid as oxidation catalyst for hydrogen peroxide treatment, removes 99% of nickel and vanadium from the heavy oils and separates them into aqueous streams. Both the Aliquat 336 and the phosphotungstic acid are required to achieve 99% removal of nickel and vanadium. Only 28%-38% of nickel and vanadium are removed by hydrogen peroxide treatment without Aliquat 336 and phosphotungstic acid. That level of removal is not enough to sufficiently prevent fouling and catalyst deactivation in refining plants.
If your company wants to develop the most cost effective PTC process, now contact Marc Halpern of PTC Organics Inc. to explore collaboration by integrating the highly specialized expertise of PTC Organics with your company’s commercial goals for increased profit and process performance.
About Marc Halpern
Dr. Halpern is founder and president of PTC Organics, Inc., the only company dedicated exclusively to developing low-cost high-performance green chemistry processes for the manufacture of organic chemicals using Phase Transfer Catalysis. Dr. Halpern has innovated PTC breakthroughs for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, monomers, polymers, flavors & fragrances, dyes & pigments and solvents. Dr. Halpern has provided PTC services on-site at more than 260 industrial process R&D departments in 37 countries and has helped chemical companies save > $200 million. Dr. Halpern co-authored five books including the best-selling “Phase-Transfer Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications and Industrial Perspectives” and has presented the 2-day course “Practical Phase-Transfer Catalysis” at 50 locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Dr. Halpern founded the journal “Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis” and “The PTC Tip of the Month” enjoyed by 2,100 qualified subscribers, now beyond 130 issues. In 2014, Dr. Halpern is celebrating his 30th year in the chemical industry, including serving as a process chemist at Dow Chemical, a supervisor of process chemistry at ICI, Director of R&D at Sybron Chemicals and founder and president of PTC Organics Inc. (15 years) and PTC Communications Inc. (20 years). Dr. Halpern also co-founded PTC Interface Inc. in 1989 and PTC Value Recovery Inc. in 1999. His academic breakthroughs include the PTC pKa Guidelines, the q-value for quat accessibility and he has achieved industrial PTC breakthroughs for a dozen strong base reactions as well as esterifications, transesterifications, epoxidations and chloromethylations plus contributed to more than 100 other industrial PTC process development projects.
Dr. Halpern has dedicated his adult life to his family and to phase-transfer catalysis (in that order!).
