About Nova Chemical Project

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Producing Petrochemicals from Alberta Oil Sands

Andrzej Krzywicki – NOVA Chemicals CorporationVadodara, July 3, 2007

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Outline of Presentation

Introduction Project ObjectivesNOVA Heavy Oil Cracking (NHC) ProcessAromatic Ring Cleavage

(ARORINCLE) ProcessConclusions

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Oil Sands production in Alberta is projected to increase from about 1MM b/d to about 3 MM b/d in

the next 10 years (Source: CAPP 2005)

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EdmontonEdmonton

CalgaryCalgary

Peace RiverPeace RiverFort Fort

McMurrayMcMurray

Athabasca Athabasca

Peace RiverPeace RiverWabascaWabasca

ColdColdLakeLake

SyncrudeSyncrude

Alberta, Canada

Adapted from AERI

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Facts on Alberta/Canada(Source: Alberta Finance 2004)

Oil Sands Reserves: 315 billion bbls of oil in place – probable estimate and 177 billion bbls recoverable with current economics and technology. 2nd in the World to Saudi Arabia in oil reserves.

• Canada is world’s 3rd largest Natural Gas producer• Canada is world’s 9th largest crude oil producer (moving up

quickly due to oil sands)• 500,000 direct jobs in the oil industry• $35 billion capital investment• $20 billion in payment to federal and provincial governments• #1 private sector investor in Canada

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Proven World Oil Reserves(Source: Oil and Gas Journal, Dec. 2004)

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Upgrading Processes/TechnologiesTechnologies for

Residue Upgrading

Carbon RejectionProcesses

CatalyticCracking

Non-CatalyticCracking

FCCU

Reduced CrudeCracking

PetroFCC

DCC, CPP

Thermal Cracking/Visbreacking

Fluid Coking/Flexicoking

Delayed Coking

Fixed BedHydroprocessing

Ebullating BedHydrocracking

Slurry PhaseHydrocracking

SolventDeasphalting

RDS/VRDS

Unicracking/HDS

Residfining

H-Oil

LC-Fining

CANMET

VEBACombi CrackingHydrovisbreacking

EST, (HC)3

Rose (Kellogg)

Demex(UOP)

Hydrogen AdditionProcesses

SeparationProcesses

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NOVA Chemicals

5th largest producer of ethyleneand 5th largest producer of polyethylene in North AmericaMajor feedstocks: E/P/B & Naphtha for our ethylene plants and benzene for styrenicsOur Joffre-Alberta site: largest ethylene production complex in the worldCorunna cracker – a flexicrackerStyrenics – Performance products and JV with INEOS

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Objectives of the Project“Add value to bitumen in Alberta.”

Convert heavy gas oils and aromatic compounds derived from Alberta bitumen into competitively advantaged petrochemical feedstock

– Develop catalyst and process to convert heavy gas oils (oil sands derived) to olefins, gasoline and cycle oils (aromatic rich)

– Develop catalyst and process technology to convert aromatic rich fractions in heavy oils (oil sands derived) to paraffins (feed to steam cracker) and BTX

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Block Flow Diagram of New ComplexHydrogen

Slurry Oil

Off-gas and/or VGO Supplier

Offgases Ethylene Plant

NHC Unit

Methane

Ethylene

Propylene

C4’s

Olefins

Aromatics Saturation

Aromatics Ring

Cleavage

Pyrolysis Gasoline

Hydrotreated HVGO

Paraffins Crude BTX

Gasoline

HydrogenCycle Oil

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NOVA Heavy Oil Cracking ProcessNHC Technology

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NOVA Heavy Oil Cracking (NHC) Process

Proliferation of oil sands development in Alberta will imply abundance of heavy oils.Cheapest of the oils (except residue) is Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO)Goal: Transform VGO into petrochemical feedstock (ethylene, propylene), gasoline and cycle oilsCycle oils are rich in aromatic compoundsFCC type units are used by others for cracking heavy oils provided that the proper catalyst is available (UOP –PetroFCC, SINOPEC – DCC, CPP)The catalyst for cracking oil sands derived heavy oils to petrochemical feedstock not commercially available now.

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Mechanism of Catalytic Pyrolysis for Heavy Oils

• Free radical mechanism = more n-C4s

• Carbonium ion mechanism = more i-C4s

• The ratio RM of i-C4 yield to n-C4 yield = relative extent of occurrence of the two mechanisms in catalytic pyrolysis processes

• Higher RM value for a given catalyst versus another catalyst indicates predominance of carbonium ion mechanism for that catalyst over free radical mech.

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RM factor of some prepared catalysts

NHC-1 NHC-2 NHC-3 NHC-4

FEED HVGO HVGO HVGO HVGO

i-C4 0.54 0.24 0.83 0.49n-C4 0.39 0.33 0.64 0.42

RMFactor

1.38 0.72 1.3 1.17

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Feedstock and Catalyst Effects

Base NHC-5 Base NHC-6

Feed Type HAGO HAGO HVGO HVGO

Temp (oC) 660 660 660 660

Ethylene 12.31 11.67 6.96 9.22

Propylene 19.35 22.25 10.72 16.10

Butylene 9.0 12.03 5.86 9.45

Total Light olefins (wt.%) 40.66 45.95 23.54 34.77

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NHC versus Steam Cracking

SteamCracking

NHC-5Steam

CrackingNHC-6

Feed Type HAGO HAGO HVGO HVGOTemp (oC) 800 660 760 660Ethylene 18.80 11.67 15.60 9.22Propylene 11.64 22.25 11.85 16.10Butylene 6.01 12.03 5.99 9.45Total Light olefins (wt.%)

36.45 45.95 33.44 34.77

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NHC Unit Results

Yield (wt.%) LVGO HVGOOlefins 38.9 32.1

Gasoline 23.4 22.0

LCO 18.9 20.1

Coke 2.3 5.7

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Advanced Catalytic Pyrolysis(Yield examples in wt.% from published data)

Process SC CPP PetroFCC NHC

Feed Source Daqing Daqing N.A -

Feed Type AGO AR VGO HAGO

Temp. (oC) 800 640 N.A 660

Ethylene 26.60 20.37 6.00 11.67

Propylene 13.75 18.23 22.00 22.25

Butadiene 4.39 0.40 14.00 12.03

Total Olefins 44.75 39.00 42.00 45.95

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NHC Technology Summary

- Olefin yield improvement over steam cracking was achieved using FCC platform

- Olefin yield depends on feed characteristics- Over 50 catalysts and modifications thereof

were synthesized and produced- Over 100 runs were carried out in the

confined fluid bed reactor (MAT unit) to optimize catalysts

- Best catalysts were run in the 2kg/hr Technical Scale Unit.

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AROmatic RINg CLEavage Process

ARORINCLE Technology

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ARORINCLE Process

• Aromatics-rich stream converted to paraffins and BTX. Two step process

• Step 1: Aromatic Rings Saturation on standard commercial catalysts (HDA, HDN and HDS)

• Step 2: Saturated aromatic rings opened & cleaved on proprietary zeolite based catalyst

• Standard hydrotreating process equipment used

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Developing Ring Opening/Cleavage Technology

ARORINCLE

Ni/MoLCO

H2Pd/Zeolite

H2

ParaffinsBTX

Depending on operating

severity

≈130 kg H2 per 1 t LCO≈100 kg H2 per 1 t hydrogenated LCO

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Heteroatoms Removal in the First Step of ARORINCLE

Technology

Heteroatoms Feed ProductSulfur [ppm] 2800 50

Nitrogen [ppm] 867 14

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ARORINCLE Mass Balance

1. Step: HDS, HDN, HDA

2. Step: Ring Cleavage

Catalyst NiW – NiMo Pd / zeoliteT [°C] 410 395P [psi] 1000 900LHSV [h-1] 0.5 0.2

Feed Product Feed ProductTotal light paraffins 0 4.2 0 41.2Total liquid saturates <C12

30.8

Total liquid saturates >C12

46.2 54.8 57.2 22.7

Total Aromatics 53.8 41.0 42.8 5.3

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ARORINCLE Mass Balance

1. Step: HDS, HDN, HAD

2. Step: Ring Cleavage

Feed Product Feed ProductBenzene 0.3Toluene 0.4Xylenes 0.8Ethyl-Benzene 0.1C9-Aromatics 2.9C10-Aromatics 0.8

Monoaromatics 27.6 30.2 31.5Diaromatics 11.6 7.6 7.9Polyaromatics 14.6 3.3 3.4

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ARORINCLE Results

Production of paraffin-rich stream over a Ring Cleavage catalyst has been demonstrated

Layers of commercial catalysts chosen for the 1st step

Zeolite based catalysts chosen for the second step

Acquired great understanding of both steps of ARORINCLE technology

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Conclusions

It is possible to convert gas oil fractions from crude oil or oil sands processing into petrochemicals and petrochemical feedstocks

Two different catalytic steps were developed using different technology platforms

– NHC technology - FCC platform

– ARORINCLE technology - hydrotreating (trickle-bed reactor) platform

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Acknowledgement Collaborative effort:

NOVA Chemicals Project Team: Michel Berghmans, John Henderson, Andrzej Krzywicki, James Lee, Mike Oballa, Vasily Simanzhenkov, Sunny Wong, Eric Kelusky, Graeme Flint

University of Stuttgart

China University of Petroleum

University of Calgary

Alberta Energy Research Institute

Path Forward

Thank You

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