Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim
219 words
A method for reducing the nitrogen content of a syncrude feed obtained from at least one of oil shale, tar sands, and coal, comprising mixing an adsorbent with said feed, said adsorbent being effective for and being employed in an amount effective to adsorb nitrogen materials from said syncrude feed and also to serve as a catalytic cracking catalyst for said syncrude feed, settling said mixture to form a first phase composed essentially of a low nitrogen syncrude material, and a second phase composed of said adsorbent and high nitrogen syncrude feed, separating said first and second phases from one another, hydrotreating said first phase to reduce the nitrogen content of said low nitrogen material, stripping low nitrogen syncrude material from said second phase, combining said material stripped from said second phase with said hydrotreated low nitrogen material to form a first low nitrogen syncrude product catalytically cracking said stripped second phase to produce a second low nitrogen syncrude product, recovering adsorbent from said cracking step, regenerating said recovered adsorbent by heating same at a temperature of at least 1000° F in the presence of air or oxygen to drive off nitrogen compounds and burn off at least part of the carbon previously deposited on said adsorbent, and reusing at least part of said regenerated adsorbent in the process.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
219 words
A method for reducing the nitrogen content of a syncrude feed obtained from at least one of oil shale, tar sands, and coal, comprising mixing an adsorbent with said feed, said adsorbent being effective for and being employed in an amount effective to adsorb nitrogen materials from said syncrude feed and also to serve as a catalytic cracking catalyst for said syncrude feed, settling said mixture to form a first phase composed essentially of a low nitrogen syncrude material, and a second phase composed of said adsorbent and high nitrogen syncrude feed, separating said first and second phases from one another, hydrotreating said first phase to reduce the nitrogen content of said low nitrogen material, stripping low nitrogen syncrude material from said second phase, combining said material stripped from said second phase with said hydrotreated low nitrogen material to form a first low nitrogen syncrude product catalytically cracking said stripped second phase to produce a second low nitrogen syncrude product, recovering adsorbent from said cracking step, regenerating said recovered adsorbent by heating same at a temperature of at least 1000° F in the presence of air or oxygen to drive off nitrogen compounds and burn off at least part of the carbon previously deposited on said adsorbent, and reusing at least part of said regenerated adsorbent in the process.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said adsorbent is selected from the group consisting of silica, alumina, silica alumina and mixtures thereof.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
29 words
the method according to claim 1 wherein said adsorbent is employed in an amount of at least 5 weight percent based on the total weight of said syncrude feed.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said catalytic cracking is carried out at a temperature of from about 650° to about 1000° F.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said adsorbent is an aluminosilicate.