Claims
- 1. A method for mitigating the condensation of liquid hydrocarbons and subsequent coke deposition in refinery reactor units wherein during operation of said units a dense phase zone comprising hydrocarbon feed and a dilute phase zone comprising vaporized hydrocarbon products produced from said hydrocarbon feed and a phase transition zone between said dense and dilute phase zones are present, said method comprising injecting a non-condensable medium wherein said medium is selected from the group consisting of non-condensable vapors, gases, and mixtures thereof, into said dilute phase zone, to form an admixture with said vaporized hydrocarbon products wherein the dew point of the dilute phase zone is suppressed while maintaining the temperature above the suppressed dew point and wherein said dew point of said dilute phase zone will be suppressed by at least about 5° F. below the temperature of said dilute phase zone.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said non-condensable medium is non-condensable at temperatures greater than or equal to 705° F.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said non-condensable medium is selected from the group consisting of steam, hydrocarbons, inert gases and mixtures thereof.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said refinery unit is a fluid coking unit or a FLEXICOKING unit.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein said refinery unit is a fluid catalytic cracking unit.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein said non-condensable medium is injected at a temperature at least about 1 to about 100° F. higher than the phase transition zone.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least about 5 mole % of non-condensable medium is injected.
- 8. The method of claim 4 wherein the fluid coking unit includes a cyclone having a cyclone inlet and a cyclone outlet and wherein the temperature of said non-condensable medium is selected to maintain the temperature of the reactor cyclone outlet at least about 5° F. higher than the phase transition temperature.
- 9. The method of claim 4 wherein the non-condensable medium is introduced into the dilute phase zone below the fluid coking unit cyclone inlet.
- 10. The method of claim 4 wherein the fluid coking unit includes a cyclone having a cyclone inlet and a cyclone outlet and wherein the temperature of said non-condensable medium is selected to maintain the temperature of the reactor cyclone outlet at least about 10° F. higher than the phase transition temperature.
- 11. The method of claim 5 wherein the fluid catalytic cracking unit includes cyclone outlets discharging into a plenum and the non-condensable medium is introduced into the plenum below the fluid catalytic cracking unit cyclone outlets.
- 12. The method of claim 1 wherein said phase transition zone contains product vapors and wherein said non-condensable medium, scouring coke or a mixture thereof is injected at a temperature sufficient to maintain or raise the temperature of said product vapors in said phase transition zone at least about 1.0 to about 20° F. above the phase transition zone temperature.
Parent Case Info
This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/438,439 filed Nov. 12, 1999, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (20)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
0643122 |
Mar 1995 |
EP |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/438439 |
Nov 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/685359 |
|
US |