A Review of Thermal Cracking, Hydrocracking, and Slurry Phase Hydroconversion Kinetic Parameters in Lumped Models for Upgrading Heavy Oils

Reaction constants for vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrocracking and slurry phase hydroconversion of residues are calculated and positioned with respect to results from the literature. This perspective shows that results are well-correlated, despite a range of experimental set-ups and various feedstocks, author assumptions, and kinetic schemes being used. We observe that for vacuum residues (VR), slurry phase hydroconversion is essentially equivalent to thermal cracking with free radical production stabilized through hydrogenation reactions. This work also highlights the importance of catalyst type for conversion of heavy oils, identifies limitations in estimating kinetic parameters for the VGO lump in thermal cracking, and validates our results.