CLIAMS:1. A process for reducing the acidic content of a hydrocarbon feed, said process comprises the following steps;
a. activating at least one anionic exchange resin bed with 2-5 wt% of at least one strong alkali to obtain a strongly basic anionic exchange resin bed;
b. washing said strongly basic anionic exchange resin bed with water to remove traces of un-utilized alkali to obtain an activated resin bed;
c. passing an inert gas through said activated resin bed in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C for a time period ranging from 5 to 25 minutes to obtain a moisture free activated resin bed;
d. passing the hydrocarbon feed through said moisture free activated resin bed at a flow rate ranging from 0.5 to 3 hr-1 LHSV in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 oC to obtain treated hydrocarbon having the acidic content of = 0.02 mg KOH/gm;
e. passing an inert gas through the activated resin bed after step (d) in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C for a time period ranging from 5 to 25 minutes to remove traces of hydrocarbon present in the bed; and
f. treating said resin bed with water and iterating the steps (a) to (e) for continuous reduction of the acidic content of the hydrocarbon feed.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hydrocarbon feed comprises light kerosene.
3. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anionic exchange resin comprises quaternary amine at terminal position.
4. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said alkali solution is selected from NaOH and KOH.
5. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said acidic content includes naphthenic acids.
6. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inert gas is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen, argon and mixtures thereof. ,TagSPECI:FIELD
The present disclosure relates to a process for reducing the acidic content of a hydrocarbon feed. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a process for reducing the acidic content of light kerosene (LK).

DEFINITIONS
As used in the present disclosure, the following words and phrases are generally intended to have the meaning as set forth below, except to the extent that the context in which they are used indicate otherwise.

The expression ‘Tight emulsion’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to a regular emulsion which is stable, hard to break primarily, as the dispersed droplets are very small.

The expression ‘ETP’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to the effluent treatment plant.

The expression ‘ATF’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to aviation turbine fuel.

The expression ‘Raschig rings’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to pieces of tube (approximately equal in length and diameter) used in large numbers as a packed bed within columns for distillations and other chemical engineering processes.

The expression ‘LHSV’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to the liquid hourly space velocity, which is the ratio of volume of feed processed in an adsorbent bed to the volume of the adsorbent bed.

The expression ‘Merox reactor’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to the vertical vessel containing a bed of charcoal granules that have been impregnated with the UOP (Universal Oil Product) catalyst.
The expression ‘Merox catalyst’ for the purpose of the present disclosure refers to the catalyst which consists of charcoal granules that have been impregnated with UOP's proprietary catalyst.

BACKGROUND
Hydrocarbon feeds (bitumen-derived hydrocarbon fractions) are derived from various oil and gas processing operations. These feeds often contain a variety of chemical species which affect the quality of the hydrocarbon (final product). The chemical species include various acidic organic substances such as naphthenic acids, mercaptans and hydrogen sulfide. The mercaptan content and hydrogen sulfide may cause an unpleasant odor and are also toxic.
An acidic hydrocarbon feed is formed due to bio-degradation of the hydrocarbon feed or during processing when the hydrocarbon feed is combined with various chemical agents and processed at elevated temperatures. If the acidic constituents remain in the hydrocarbon feed throughout the various stages of processing, they cause corrosion of the equipment. This corrosion of the equipment utilized in refining operations, results in higher operating expenses such as maintaining the equipment and refinery shutdowns due to equipment failure.
A variety of approaches have been proposed for minimizing the effects of the acidic constituents. One approach suggests blending of the hydrocarbon feed comprising a high naphthenic acid content with a hydrocarbon feed comprising a low naphthenic acid content. In another approach corrosion inhibitors (polysulfides) are used for treating the surfaces of the equipment which comes in contact with the acidic hydrocarbon feed. Yet another approach involves neutralizing the acidic constituents in the hydrocarbon feed using an aqueous solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide and subsequently removing the neutralized species from the feed. Thermal and catalytic treatments are still other approaches for thermally cracking or catalytically converting the acidic constituents into non-acidic species.
The aforesaid approaches have several difficulties such as, the blending of various high and low acidic content and hydrocarbon feeds may result in increased costs.
The thermal treatment approach requires high temperature and pressure and hence catalytic thermal treatments often suffer from catalyst deactivation and produce undesirable hydrocarbon products. Also, thermal cracking is not effective in reducing the acidic content.
The approach of addition of corrosion inhibitors to the acidic hydrocarbon feed results in processing complications such as catalyst poisoning, inhibition and fouling. The use of corrosion-resistant metals results in a significant increase in capital investment.
The neutralization of the acidic hydrocarbon feed using basic aqueous solutions also has an undesirable effect, including the formation of foam with the subsequent loss of oil and the formation of undesirable alkali metal salts such as naphthanates. The alkali naphthanates in turn decompose to naphthenic acid and alkali upon contact with slightly acidic water. Because of pollution regulations, the naphthenic acids must be disposed off, incurring additional costs.
A mild hydrogenation treatment can also be employed to reduce the acidic content of the distillate fuel oils, but this process is expensive.
Therefore, there is felt the need for a simple and a cost effective process for reducing the acidic content of a hydrocarbon feed.

OBJECTS

Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows.

It is an object of the present disclosure to ameliorate one or more problems of the prior art or to at least provide a useful alternative.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a process for effective and continuous reduction of the acidic content of hydrocarbon feed, particularly light kerosene (LK).

Still another object of the present disclosure is to avoid deactivation of catalyst in a Merox reactor.

Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a process for reducing the acidic content of light kerosene by reducing oil carry over and thus prevent the chances of an upset of the effluent treatment plant (ETP).

Still another object of the present disclosure is to ameliorate one or more problems of the prior art or to at least provide a useful alternative.

Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description which is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

SUMMARY
The present disclosure provides a process for reducing the acidic content of hydrocarbon feed (light kerosene) involving the step of activating at least one anionic exchange resin bed by treating it with 2-5 % of at least one strong alkali to obtain a strongly basic anionic resin bed. The strongly basic anionic resin bed is washed at least twice with water to remove traces of un-utilized alkali. An inert gas is passed through the resin bed for a predetermined time in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C to remove traces of moisture present in the resin bed. Upon complete drying of the resin bed, acidic hydrocarbon feed (light kerosene) having an initial acidic content more than 0.3 mg KOH/gm is passed through the dried bed at a flow rate ranging from 0.5 to 3 hr-1 LHSV in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C for a predetermined time to obtain hydrocarbon (light kerosene) having at most 0.02 mg KOH/gm of acidic content. Acidic as well as other impurities are trapped in the activated resin bed. The treated hydrocarbon (light kerosene) obtained from the resin bed is collected for further use. After complete removal of treated hydrocarbon (light kerosene) from the resin bed, an inert gas is passed through the resin bed for a predetermined time to remove hydrocarbon traces (treated light kerosene) and then the resin bed is washed at least twice with water. After a predetermined time interval the resin bed is again treated with alkali and the above steps are repeated. Accordingly, the resin bed is regenerated for further treatment.

The process of the present disclosure is mild and does not require organic solvent and hence it protects the resin bed from destruction. Therefore, the resin bed can be used repeatedly after regeneration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The process of the present disclosure will now be described with the help of the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates a schematic representation of an equipment set-up to carry out the process for reducing the acidic content of LK (light kerosene) fraction;
Figure 2 illustrates the graph of effect of caustic strength/quantity on regeneration efficiency of resin bed; and
Figure 3 illustrates the graph of run length of the resin bed of fresh LK feed and externally added naphthenic acid LK feed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Acidic impurities (organic acids) present in a hydrocarbon feed (crude oils and petroleum fractions) are mainly naphthenic acids. Naphthenic acids (NAs) are complex mixtures of predominately alkyl-substituted cycloaliphatic carboxylic acids (containing cyclopentane and cyclohexane rings) and small amounts of acyclic acids.
The molecular weight of the naphthenic acids present in crude oil as determined by mass spectrometry generally varies between 200 and 700. The boiling point of the naphthenic acid is in the range of 165 oC to 600 oC. The naphthenic acid in light kerosene feed plays an important role in the performance of a Merox catalyst in a Merox reactor. The naphthenic acid in light kerosene forms sodium salt of naphthenic acid in the Merox unit and hence blocks the pores of a charcoal supported catalyst in the Merox unit which decreases the activity of the Merox catalyst. Hence, it is necessary to remove naphthenic acid from the light kerosene stream to a desirable level (max.0.02 mgKOH/gm). Conventionally used methods for reducing naphthenic acid from the hydrocarbon feed (light kerosene) have many disadvantages such as tight emulsion formation in electrostatic coalscer prewash (ECP), oil carry over and the like.

Therefore, the inventors of the present disclosure envisage a simple and cost effective process for reducing the acidic contents of light kerosene. In the present process, reduction of the acidic content means the reduction of the amount of naphthenic acid and mercaptans from light kerosene.

A process for reducing the amount of acidic content of the hydrocarbon feed (light kerosene) involves following steps:
An anionic exchange bed is provided. The anionic exchange resin bed is activated. The activation of anionic exchange resin bed is achieved by passing 2-5 wt% of at least one strong alkali solution through the bed to obtain a strongly basic anionic exchange resin bed. In the process of activation of the resin bed, anion (chloride ion) of the bed is replaced by hydroxide ion (OH-) of a strong alkali.
The anionic exchange resin in the bed is selected from the group of resins that have quaternary amine at the terminal position. The resin bed of the present disclosure consists of three layers. The first layer (bottom layer of the column) is filled with ceramic balls. The second layer of the resin bed contains raschig rings. The third layer consists of resin. Resin is poured on the raschig rings layer. The raschig rings are used to arrest the slippage of small resin particles along with the hydrocarbon.

The alkali is selected from sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH). The amount of alkali used to activate the anionic bed ranges from 2-5 wt% of the resin bed volume. In an exemplary embodiment, the strong alkali is NaOH solution which is passed through the anionic resin bed at least three times to obtain a basic anionic resin bed with appropriate activations.

The strongly basic anionic exchange resin contains a quaternary ammonium (NR4+) ion as a functional group which is attached to a counter ion (chloride ion). During resin activation, anions (chloride ion) are replaced by OH- ion by passing the strong alkali. Ion exchange is a reversible chemical reaction where an ion from a solution is exchanged for a similarly charged ion attached to an immobile solid particle. These solid ion exchange particles are either naturally occurring inorganic zeolites or synthetically produced organic resins. Synthetic organic resins are preferable. In an exemplary embodiment, the synthetic organic resin is selected from Styrene-divinyl benzene co-polymers. An organic ion exchange resin is composed of high molecular weight polyelectrolytes that can exchange their active ions for ions of similar charge from the surrounding medium. Each resin has a distinct number of active ion sites that set the maximum quantity of exchanges per unit of the resin.

In the second step of the process of the present disclosure, the strongly basic resin bed so obtained is washed with water to remove traces of un-utilized alkali. The washing of the resin bed using water is carried out at least twice to remove un-reacted alkali completely. The flow of water ranges from 1 to 4 hr-1 LHSV.

After the second step of the process of the present disclosure, an inert gas is passed through the resin bed to remove traces of water present in the resin bed (third step of the process of the present disclosure) at a flow rate ranging from 5 to 10 liters/hour for 5 to 25 minutes to obtain a substantially moisture free resin bed. The temperature of the resin bed is in the range of 20 °C to 30 oC when an inert gas is passed through it. The inert gas is selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, argon and a combination thereof.

The step of (fourth step) passing a hydrocarbon feed through the moisture free strongly basic anionic resin bed is carried out in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C. The hydrocarbon feed is passed at a flow rate ranging from 0.5 to 3 hr-1 LHSV. In an exemplary embodiment, the hydrocarbon feed is light kerosene.

The acidic moieties (specifically naphthenic acid) are trapped in the strongly basic anionic exchange resin bed wherein the hydroxide ion is replaced by naphthenic acid anion (RCOO-). A typical neutralization reaction of naphthenic acid with strong alkali (NaOH) is shown below in Table 1.

Reaction-I

Table 1: Resin bed interaction with Naphthenic acid groups

In the absence of the neutralization reaction, the naphthenic acid in the light kerosene forms sodium naphthenates in the Merox reactor. Sodium naphthenates, being a surfactant, coat on the catalyst and block the pores of the charcoal catalyst support causing a loss of catalyst activity. Therefore, neutralization of the naphthenic acid plays an important role in the performance of the Merox catalyst in the Merox reactor.

The acidic anions from the hydrocarbon feed passing through the strongly basic anionic resin bed which are trapped in the resin bed and the hydrocarbon obtained from the resin bed has a comparatively less amount of acidic content. In one exemplary embodiment, the hydrocarbon feed with 0.54 mg KOH/gm is introduced to the resin bed and after treatment, the acidity of the light kerosene obtained is observed to be 0.02 mg KOH/gm. The treated hydrocarbon is collected for further use.
It has been observed that, along with acidic impurities, some sulphur impurities such as thiols and mercaptans are also trapped in the resin bed. Therefore, the strong odor of kerosene is reduced. Table 2 given below shows the results of light kerosene before and after treatment.

Table 2: Removal of Mercaptans
Sr. No Samples Acidic content (mgKOH/g) RSH-Mercaptans (ppm)
1 LK before treatment
(as such) 0.44 143
2 LK after treatment
(after 50 BV (Bed Volume)) 0.02 129

From the table it is observed that, treated light kerosene contains a decreased amount of mercaptans as compared to untreated light kerosene. This reveals that, the process of the present disclosure removes acidic content as well as mercaptans. In an exemplary embodiment, LK is processed up to 112 BV i.e. 112 times the volume of resin bed volume. The mercaptans removal (R-SH) is checked after passing 50 BV i.e., in the middle of the process when the bed is 50% exhausted and it is observed that mercaptans are removed ever after 50 BV from the LK feed after treatment with anionic resin bed.

In the fifth step of the process of the present disclosure, an inert gas is again passed through the resin bed (after the completion of the fourth step) in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C for 5 to 25 minutes to remove traces of hydrocarbon (treated Light kerosene) present in the bed. The flow rate of inert gas is in the range of 5 to 10 liters/hour. The inert gas is selected from nitrogen, argon and a combination thereof.

The resin bed is then washed at least twice with water at a flow rate ranging from 150 to 600 ml/hour in the temperature range of 20 °C to 30 °C for 0.5 to 2 hours. After washing with water, the resin bed is again treated with a strong alkali (2-5%) for removing the naphthenic acid anion (RCOO-) by the OH- ion of strong alkali solution and the mercaptans to obtain a regenerated resin bed. The regenerated bed can be used for reduction of the acidic content of a fresh batch of light kerosene containing elevated acidic content.
The present disclosure is further illustrated herein below with the help of the following examples. The experiments used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein. These laboratory scale experiments can be scaled up to an industrial/commercial scale.

Experimental Details

Example 1: Experimental set-up -Preparation of Resin Bed:-
Figure 1 illustrates the experimental set-up for the reduction of the acidic content of the light kerosene. In order to reduce the acidic content of light kerosene feed, a resin bed was prepared in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure. The resin bed was prepared in a column reactor 100 that was 100 cm long and 2.5 cm diameter.
The resin bed comprised three layers. The bottom layer (10 cm) comprised 13 mm ceramic balls. A second layer was disposed on the ceramic balls conformed (5 cm) with 0.5 inch raschig rings so as to arrest the slippage of small resin particles along with the hydrocarbon flow. The ceramic balls layer and the raschig rings layer constituted the guard beds.150 ml of resin was poured on the top of the bottom guard bed as the third layer which formed a 65 cm height resin bed.

Strongly basic macroporous type-I resin (‘Indion 810’) was selected for the purpose of the reduction of the acidic content from the light kerosene fraction.

The characteristics of the resin bed are given in table 3 below:

Table 3: Resin type and characteristic of resin
Parameters Details of resin bed
Commercial Name Indion 810
Manufacturer Ion Exchange (I) Ltd
Type Macro porous strongly basic anion exchange
Appearance Off white opaque bead
Matrix STY-DVB copolymer
Functional group Quaternary ammonium
(Benzyl tri-methyl amine)
Ionic form as supplied Chloride
Total exchange capacity Minimum 1.2 meq/ml
Bulk density ~ 650 kg/m3
Particle size 0.3-1.0 mm
Effective size 0.45-0.55 mm
Maximum operating temperature 60 deg C in OH form
Operating pH range 0 to 14

The reactor 100 was configured to receive light kerosene feed from a storage tank 101 that was connected to and in fluid communication with the reactor 100 via a pump P1. A caustic tank 102 and a water tank 103 were also connected to the reactor 100 via a pump P2 wherein the caustic tank and the water tank were configured to selectively supply caustic and water to the reactor 100.
A nitrogen gas 104 source was connected to the reactor 100 to selectively supply nitrogen gas to the reactor.
An effluent treatment water tank 105 was also connected to the reactor 100 for recycling and recovery of light kerosene and water from the mixture of water and oil.

Example 2: Process for reducing the acidic content of the Light Kerosene feed:
The experimental set up as described in example 1 was used to carry out the process for reducing the acidic content of light kerosene feed.
In the first place, the resin bed was activated by passing 5% caustic solution from the caustic tank 102 using pump P2 (10 times of resin bed volume ~1500 ml). The activation process was carried out in 3 hours. However, during the experimental runs, the caustic strength and the concentrations of the caustic are varied for optimization of caustic quantity which was used for activation of the resin bed.
Once the bed was activated, the activated resin bed was washed with water from the water tank 103 using pump P2 until the pH of the water became neutral. This step of washing of the resin bed is needed for removal of un-utilized caustic in the resin bed. The nitrogen gas 104 was then passed through the resin bed for 6 minutes at the flow rate of 9 liters/hour for removal of traces of water. From tank 101, the light kerosene having a higher acidic content (having acidic content more than 0.5 mg KOH/mg of sample) was introduced into the resin bed with a flow rate of 3.3 and 5 ml/min (on the basis of LHSV of 1.3 and 2 hr-1). The sample of the treated light kerosene was checked every 4 hours. The sample was analyzed for the reduction of acidic content by ASTM D 664 method. The effluent treatment water tank comprises a water phase and oil phase. The water and oil were separated and recovered for further use.
Once the bed was exhausted (i.e. the acidic content value of the treated sample exceeds 0.02 mg KOH/gm of sample), the pump P1 was stopped.

The hydrocarbons remaining in the bed were drained off completely by opening the outlet connection. Distilled water was then passed through the bed for washing. The bed was again activated by the caustic solution of the desired concentration followed by washing with water. The same procedure was repeated for another set of run. The process of the present disclosure has experimental parameters summarized in table 4:

Table 4: Experimental parameters
Parameters Details
Peristaltic pump flow rate 0-40 ml/min
Resin bed Volume 150 ml
Light kerosene feed rate 3.3-5 ml/min
LHSV- Liquid hourly space velocity 1.3 and 2 per hour
Experiment temperature Room temp
Pressure 1 atm
Initial acidity (acidic content) of Light Kerosene 0.54 mg KOH/gm of sample (Max)
0.35 mg KOH/gm of sample (Min)
Final acidity after treatment of treated light kerosene 0.02 mg KOH/gm of treated sample

Table 5 below shows the first set of experimental results. The acidity of light kerosene feed sample was 0.5mg KOH/gm. The resin bed was considered exhausted when the treated light kerosene acidic content was more than 0.02 mg KOH/gm. Different caustic strengths and quantities were tried for activation of the resin bed.

Table 5: Experimental results with high acidic content light kerosene feed
Description *Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 Cycle 5 Cycle 6 Cycle 7
Resin bed volume, ml 150 150 150 150 150 150 150
Run Length, hour 84 80 63 58 67 71 71
Total volume ATF processed, liters 16.8 15.8 12.4 11.5 13.3 14 13.9
No. of times bed volume processed 112 105.3 82.6 76.6 88.66 93.33 92.66
Remarks Regeneration was made with 5 % NaOH solution with quantity 40 times bed volume of resin Regeneration was made with 5% NaOH solution 10 times bed volume of resin Regeneration was made with 5% NaOH solution 20 times bed volume of resin
*one cycle means 1 runs after one time regeneration of existing resin bed.

Experimental run in example 2 was carried out for 7 cycles. In the experiment, the run length of the resin bed for the cycles varied from a maximum of 84 to a minimum of 58 hours with an average of 71 hours. The resin bed was regenerated by washing the bed with water, followed by nitrogen purging.

Example 3: Effect of quantity of alkali strength on activation of resin
The effect of alkali strength and quantity on activation of resin was also studied. Alkali strength was varied as 2.5, 4 and 5 wt% to see the effect of the acid neutralizing capacity of the resin bed. The experimental data is shown in Figure 2. In the figure 2, A, B, C and D depict as-
A: 5% caustic solution w.r.t 10 times bed volume of the resin bed
B: 2.5% caustic solution w.r.t 10 times bed volume of the resin bed
C: 2.5% caustic solution w.r.t 5 times bed volume of the resin bed
D: 4 % caustic solution w.r.t 5 times bed volume of the resin bed

The resin solution was also optimized for 5 and 10 bed volumes for optimization of caustic quantity. From various experimental runs, it was observed that for the complete regeneration of exhausted bed, the optimum caustic strength was about 4-5% with respect to 10 times bed volume of the resin bed.

Example 4: control experiment
The experiment was repeated with the experimental setup as described in example 1. In order to get a sample of high acidity of light kerosene (hydrocarbon feed), commercially available naphthenic acid (acidic content =220-230 mg KOH/gm) was added to an available light kerosene sample. The experimental data is shown in Figure 3. In figure 3, high TAN light kerosene feed is ATF, depicted as ‘a” and externally added naphthenic acid light kerosene feed is depicted as ‘b’.

The acidity of LK sample was 0.1 mg KOH/g and to make up the acidity to 0.45 mg KOH/g, 0.16 wt% of commercial naphthenic acid having acidic content 220 mg KOH/gm was added. On addition of naphthenic acid, the acidic content of light kerosene feed increased to 0.45mg KOH/gm. With this added feed, a total 26 runs were taken to optimize the regeneration cycle length of the resin bed.

From the examples 1-4, it was observed that the regeneration cycle of the resin bed in the experiments as per present disclosure was longer than the control experiment. Average run length observed was 71 hours, whereas, it decreased to ~38 hours in the control experiment. Optimized and effective amount of alkali is shown in the range of 4-5 wt% with respect to 10 times bed volume of resin for activation /regeneration of the resin bed.
Regeneration cycle was effective in 48-50 hours depending on the acidity (acidic content) of the feed. The dropping of efficiency may be attributed to the type of naphthenic acid content in light kerosene feed. This declining trend may be due to the presence of higher molecular weight naphthenic acids (MW=~250-260) which are higher than the naphthenic acids normally present in light kerosene fractions (BP=165°C to 227 °C). This shows that the process is able to handle even a higher content of naphthenic acids in the LK feed than the usual content of naphthenic acid in the LK from the refinery, but at the cost of decrease in run length.

TECHNICAL ADVANCES AND ECONOMICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The process of the present disclosure described herein above has several technical advantages including but not limited to the realization of:
? A continuous process for reduction of the acidic content of the hydrocarbon feed.
? A process for reducing the acidic content of hydrocarbon feed which removes sulphur compounds such as thiols and mercaptans along with the naphthenic acid.
? A process for reducing the acidic content of hydrocarbon feed which is mild and protects the resin bed from destruction and hence can be used repeatedly.
? A process for reducing the acidic content of a hydrocarbon feed which reduces the chances of a tight emulsion and thus avoids the chances of an upset in the effluent treatment plant (ETP).
? A process for reducing the acidic content of hydrocarbon feed which is simple and cost effective
The exemplary embodiment herein quantifies the benefits arising out of this disclosure and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like that has been included in this specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the disclosure. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form a part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the disclosure as it existed anywhere before the priority date of this application.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the particular features of this disclosure, it will be appreciated that various modifications can be made, and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the disclosure. These and other modifications in the nature of the disclosure or the preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the disclosure and not as a limitation.