Crucial technologies supporting future development of petroleum refining industry

The primary tasks of refineries in the future are to improve the yield of light oil and to produce clean fuels and high-quality chemical raw materials. The efficient conversion of heavy oil is necessary to improve the yield of light oil. This conversion requires some crucial technologies, including: (1) residue hydrotreating technology, (2) the research institute of petroleum processing's (RIPP's) integrated combination process for residue hydroprocessing, (3) the integration of selective hydrogenation of fluid catalytic cracking gas oil with selective catalytic cracking process, and (4) the combination of superficial solvent deasphalting, hydrotreatment of deasphalted oil, and fluid catalytic cracking technology. The most important technologies for producing clean fuels such as qualified gasoline and diesel include the RIPP's selective hydrodesulfurization technology, the RIPP's hydrogenation technology for producing ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, and catalysts for producing RS-1000 and RS-2000 (grades of ultra-low-sulfur diesel). To produce high quality chemical raw materials, the Sinopec hydroprocessing for maximum propylene of fluid catalytic cracking process is of vital importance. The characteristics and effects of these technologies are summarized in this article. (C) 2013, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.