VISBREAKER

Highlights

OBJECTIVE
Mild thermal cracking process leading to
a medium conversion and a reduction
of the heavy fuels total production in
a decreasing market.

TO SUM UP:
• It reduces the quantity of heavy fuel and produces a little naphtha and LPG (about 20% yield) through
moderate cracking and also gasoil.

• It reduces the viscosity of the heavy fuel and thus enables a substantial reduction of quantity of gasoil
to be fluxed with the heavy fuel to meet the required low viscosity.

• Yields gained: gas (1 to 2%), gasoline (3 to 4%), gasoil (10 to 14%), distillate (20%), residu (60%).

• The light cracked products contain large quantities of sulphur, nitrogen and unsaturated compounds
(olefins and diolefins). Always mixed in straight run cuts, their hydrotreatment consumes a high quantity
of hydrogen.

• The cracked heavy fuels are unstable because of precipitation of asphaltenes, are to be fluxed with highly
aromatic cuts and may manifest instability when mixed together.

• The energy consumption is moderate, between 1 and 2% over feed flow rate.

• A variant for this process is called “thermal cracking” and processes VGO, atmospheric distillation residu
or residues and extracts from the lube base oil plant instead of vacuum residue.

• Operating parameters: outlet temperature furnace (in between 450 and 480°C) na dfeed flowrate, to adjust
depending on the wanted conversion and in the limit of the visbroken residu stability.

• The regular coking deposit in the tube furnace and in the soaker entail a regular cleaning (each 3 months)
of tubes in the furnace by burning and in the soaker by a mechanical breaking.

• The margin depends on the differential value between light products and heavy fuel, on the bitumen market
and on the differential between light and heavy crude oils.

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