Abstract:

Petroleum thermal processing technology employs heat that indues thermal cracking and condensation of petroleum and its derivatives, resulting in the formation of various products. This technology includes a wide range of processes involved in petroleum refining and chemical synthesis and belongs to one of the branches of “thermochemical reaction engineering”. The ongoing third energy transition has led to a significant restructuring of the petroleum refining industry with a shift from producing fuel oil to manufacturing chemicals. This has driven continuous advancements in petroleum thermal processing technology, which is primarily based on thermochemical reactions. The main objectives of petroleum processing technology are heavy oil upgrading and low-carbon olefins production. The former includes processes such as visbreaking, delayed coking and heavy oil fluidized thermal cracking, while the latter involves steam cracking technology. In order to more efficiently convert petroleum into low-carbon olefins, researchers have further coupled thermochemical reactions with catalytic reactions, leading to the development of thermochemical-catalytic coupling thermal processing technology. This technology can be divided into light oil catalytic pyrolysis and heavy oil catalytic pyrolysis techniques. This article comprehensively analyzed the evolution process, technical characteristics, current situation and prospects of the above six typical petroleum thermal processing technologies, and conducted a comprehensive comparison. Through comparison, it was found that different petroleum thermal processing technologies can be distinguished based on whether there was recycling of heat carrier. The use of heat carrier recycling can effectively solve the coking problem and can also combine catalytic reactions to significantly enhance the adaptability of raw materials, flexibility of products and environmental friendliness in various technologies such as heavy oil fluidized thermal cracking, light oil catalytic pyrolysis, and heavy oil catalytic cracking. Therefore, future development would focus on these areas. In addition, by further integrating electrification technology with steam cracking and other related thermal processing technologies, the environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of the entire field can be effectively improved.

Key words: petroleum thermal processing, heavy oil upgrading, low-carbon olefins production, thermochemical-catalytic coupling thermal processing

摘要：

石油热加工技术是在热量作用下使石油及其产物发生热裂化和缩合反应生成不同产品，涉及石油炼制与化工生产的绝大多数加工过程，属于“热化学反应工程”分支之一。随着第三次能源转型持续推进，石油炼制行业正面临“油转化”的重大生产结构调整，促使以热化学反应为核心的石油热加工技术不断发展，包括以重油轻质化为主要目标的减黏裂化、延迟焦化、重油流化热裂化技术以及以低碳烯烃为主要目标的蒸汽裂解技术。为了更为高效地将石油转化为低碳烯烃，将热化学反应进一步与催化反应耦合，发展出含催化热载体的轻油催化热裂解和重油催化热裂解两类热化学-催化耦合热加工技术。本文对上述六种典型石油热加工技术的演变历程、技术特点、发展现状与前景进行了纵向梳理，并从不同维度对其进行横向对比分析。对比发现，热加工中热载体循环再生能够有效解决工艺过程焦炭处理问题，且能与催化反应相耦合，使得重油流化热裂化、轻油催化热裂解和重油催化热裂解等热加工技术在原料适应性、产物灵活性、环保性方面具有突出优势。此外，将电气化技术进一步与蒸汽裂解及以外的其他热加工技术相结合，可有效提升石油热加工领域未来的整体环保性和节能性。

关键词: 石油热加工, 重油轻质化, 低碳烯烃, 热化学-催化耦合热加工