ABSTRACT
The technology of petroleum residue upgrading in slurry-phase reactors under high hydrogen partial pressure is based on the Bergius-Pier technology for coal liquefaction œmmmerciahzed in Germany since the mid-1930’s. The coal liquefaction plants that existed on VEBA OEL’s refinery site were reactivated in 1952 and used for residual oil conversion until economic reasons forced their shut-down in 1964. For the determination of reactivity and yield distribution a wide variety of vacuum residues in different sized plants were tested. Closely connected with the design of a conversion plant for changing feedstocks is the question of the necessary pressure within the slurry phase hydrogenation. From the mid-1950’s the slurry-phase reactor cascade was connected with a hot separator and the hot separator overheads directly routed to a fixed bed reactor. All the aforementioned feedstocks can be converted up to 95% into distillates by applying the slurry phase technology.
