Hydrocracking of Crude Oil Recovered from Ixachi Onshore Field: Kinetic Modeling by Lumping Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to obtain the kinetic model parameters of hydrocracking of crude oil recovered from Ixachi onshore well, México. Recovered crude oil was purified to remove water and sediments, and then, the feedstock was subject of hydrocracking at 395 and 410 °C of reaction temperature, 1000 psi of initial hydrogen pressure, 0.84 wt.% catalyst-to-oil, stirring at 750 rpm, by using a batch reactor of 100 mL. The reaction time was varied from 1 to 4 h for each reaction temperature. 40/60 mesh NiMo supported ZSM-5 catalyst was used, firstly activated in gas phase by using 15 vol% H₂S/85 vol% H₂. The parameter estimation for kinetic modeling of hydrocracking was carried out using a nonlinear algorithm and five lumps. The experimental data demonstrated that, as reaction time increased, the naphtha and kerosene fraction increased, while residue cut was reduced, being the yields higher at 410 °C in any case compared with those yields at 395 °C. The secondary hydrocracking was more evident for light gasoil, and heavy gas oil cuts at the two reaction temperatures. Regarding the kinetic modeling, the overall error of estimation of kinetic parameters was 0.24 and the coefficient of determination of the linear regression of the parity graph was 0.9919 at confidence interval of 95%; the values of the activation energies ranged from 31 to 297 kJ/mol.