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- Nachgewiesen in: USPTO Patent Applications
- Sprachen: English
- Document Number: 20150353866
- Publication Date: December 10, 2015
- Appl. No: 14/653501
- Application Filed: December 20, 2013
- Claim: 1-37. (canceled)
- Claim: 38. A process for the refining of crude tall oil (CTO), wherein the process comprises fractionation under vacuum of a refined CTO into at least one stream of refined tall diesel (RTD) or tall oil fatty acids (TOFA), said RTD or TOFA comprising from 2-30% by volume of resin acids and from 20-90% by volume of fatty acids, characterized by that the refined CTO is charged to a first fractionation step for separation of tall oil fatty acids (TOFA) and resin acids (RA) from tall oil pitch (TOP) followed by a second fractionation step wherein a stream rich in RTD or TOFA components having a boiling point at atmospheric pressure in a range of 170-420° C. is separated from a stream rich in RA, which RA is further purified in a third step being a RA purification step, so that the fractionation also yields at least one stream of RA comprising less than 5% by volume of fatty acids.
- Claim: 39. The process according to claim 38, wherein the stream of RTD or TOFA is deoxygenated forming hydrocarbon compounds in a subsequent step.
- Claim: 40. The process according to claim 38, wherein the first fractionation step for separation is performed in one or more TFEs arranged in parallel or in series.
- Claim: 41. The process according to claim 38, wherein the specific energy consumption of producing RTD and/or TOFA and RA from CTO is lower than about 600 kWh/ton refined CTO feed.
- Claim: 42. The process according to claim 38, wherein the RTD or TOFA stream comprises less than 10% by volume of RA, preferably less than 5% by volume of RA and wherein the content of RA of the RTD or TOFA is further lowered by subsequent refining to a level of RA lower than about 3%.
- Claim: 43. The process according to claim 38, wherein TOFA with low RA content, lower than about 5% by volume, is exported, optionally after further refining, for use in the manufacturing of fine chemicals such as soaps, detergents, adhesives and varnishes.
- Claim: 44. The process according to claim 39, wherein deoxygenation is performed in the presence of hydrogen.
- Claim: 45. The process according to claim 38, wherein the fractionation of CTO is performed under vacuum in at least three units.
- Claim: 46. The process according to claim 38, wherein the third RA purification step is performed under deep vacuum.
- Claim: 47. The process according to claim 38, wherein the stream rich in RA discharged from the first separation step is further processed in a thin-film evaporator (TFE) for separation of carryover TOP components said RA(s) being further processed under vacuum in a fractionation tower being a RA polishing tower in order to produce high quality RA(s).
- Claim: 48. The process according to claim 38, wherein a stream rich in RA is discharged from a lower part of a main fractionation tower in the second fractionation step and charged into at least one other thin-film evaporator (TFE) producing at least one product stream rich in RA or discharged into a fractionation tower being a RA polishing tower.
- Claim: 49. The process according to claim 47, wherein further processing of RA(s) in a third separation step is performed in a fractionation tower being a RA polishing tower, in which one stream being rich in fatty acid components having boiling points in a range of 170-420° C. and one stream being rich in RA(s) are obtained.
- Claim: 50. The process according to claim 38, wherein refined CTO is charged to a first fractionation step conducted in a first thin-film evaporator (TFE) and wherein a TOFA rich gaseous output stream from the first thin-film evaporator (TFE) is drawn-off and then further processed by means of at least one of deoxygenation, decarboxylation and decarbonylation for removal of oxygen atoms from the TOFA rich gaseous stream thereby producing a paraffinic rich oil.
- Claim: 51. The process according to claim 50, wherein a paraffinic rich oil is fed to a hydroprocessing unit for production of biofuel or fed to a steam cracker for production of ethylene or propylene.
- Claim: 52. The process according to claim 38, wherein the total yield of RTD based on CTO feed is above 55% by weight and the total yield of RA is above 15% by weight.
- Claim: 53. The process according to claim 38, wherein the refined CTO has been obtained from CTO which has been processed in a pre-treatment step involving CTO washing and separation of impurities, from which pre-treatment step a first refined CTO stream is obtained, said first refined CTO stream then being further processed in a steam stripper or a thin-film evaporator to remove volatile components forming and yield a second refined and substantially volatiles free CTO stream which is further processed in a thin-film evaporator to separate and remove a tall oil pitch stream forming and yield a third refined CTO stream charged to a fractionation tower operating under vacuum (1-25 mbar, preferably 1-10 mbar).
- Claim: 54. A process for the production of a refined tall diesel (RTD) composition with low density, characterized by that crude sulphate turpentine(s) (CST) is added to the refined tall diesel (RTD) composition.
- Claim: 55. The process according to claim 54, wherein the CST has been produced in an earlier process step during separation of volatile components having boiling points in the range of from 120-250° C. in a crude tall oil (CTO) or a refined CTO.
- Claim: 56. The process according to claim 55, wherein the volatile components have boiling points below 200° C.
- Claim: 57. The process according to claim 55, wherein the removal of volatile components is performed in a steam stripper and/or a thin-film evaporator.
- Claim: 58. The process according to claim 54, wherein the crude sulphate turpentine(s) (CST) being added is purified involving at least Si removal.
- Claim: 59. The process according to claim 54, wherein purification of the crude sulphate turpentine(s) (CST) is performed by adsorption.
- Claim: 60. The process according to claim 54, said process also involving a first pre-treatment step comprising a CTO wash and separation of impurities for the production of a refined CTO, then separation of volatile components having boiling points in the range of from 120-200° C. in the refined CTO for the production of a volatiles depleted tall oil stream, then further processing of the volatiles depleted tall oil stream in a thin-film evaporator to produce a further refined tall oil stream and remove tall oil pitch (TOP) from said refined tall oil stream.
- Claim: 61. The process according to claim 60, wherein the further refined tall oil stream is fed into a fractionation tower operating under vacuum in which one stream of refined tall diesel (RTD) stream being rich of components having boiling points in a range of 170-420° C. and one other stream being rich in resin acids (RA) are obtained, and wherein CST is added to RTD after the RTD has been discharged from the fractionation tower.
- Claim: 62. The process according to claim 61, wherein the total yield of RTD is above 55% by weight and the total yield of RA is above about 15% by weight.
- Claim: 63. The process according to claim 61, wherein the stream being rich in RA is further processed in one further thin film evaporator to produce a further refined RA rich stream and remove TOP and thereafter feeding the refined RA rich stream into a fractionation tower being a RA polishing tower operating under deep vacuum (0.1-1.0 mbar) in order to separate one stream of fatty acids rich material and one stream of RA in high purity with a fatty acid content below about 4% by volume.
- Claim: 64. The process according to claim 38, wherein the process also comprises a pre-treatment of a crude tall oil (CTO) for removal of impurities, said pre-treatment comprising a first pre-treatment step involving a CTO wash and a separation of a first oil phase comprising refined CTO and an aqueous phase holding impurities, and a second step involving a separation of a second oil phase from the aqueous phase.
- Claim: 65. The process for according to claim 64, wherein the CTO is contacted with water in an amount of below 5 wt. % for the CTO wash.
- Claim: 66. The process according to claim 64, wherein at least one additive is added in the first pre-treatment step to bind metal ions within the CTO to produce water soluble metal complexes.
- Claim: 67. The process according to claim 64, wherein the recovered second oil phase is fed into the first oil phase comprising refined CTO.
- Claim: 68. The process according to claim 64, wherein the recovered second oil phase is fed into the CTO.
- Claim: 69. The process according to claim 64, wherein the separation of the first pre-treatment step is performed in a separator unit where the separation is driven by centrifugal force.
- Claim: 70. The process according to claim 64, wherein the separation of the second step is performed by decantation.
- Claim: 71. The process according to claim 64, wherein fibers, salts, residual inorganic acid, transition metals and/or lignin constitute the impurities.
- Claim: 72. The process according to claim 64, wherein the refined CTO is fed into a process system providing separation of volatile components having boiling points below 170° C. present in the CTO to provide a volatiles depleted tall oil stream.
- Claim: 73. The process according to claim 72, wherein the volatiles depleted tall oil stream is fed into a vacuum distillation system to obtain individual high-value fractions of fatty and resin acids.
- Claim: 74. A refined tall diesel (RTD) composition comprising 1-30 wt. % resin acid(s) (RA) and 70-95 wt. % fatty acid(s) (FA), characterized by that it further comprises 1-10 wt. % crude sulphate turpentine(s) (CST) and 0-1 wt. % anthraquinone.
- Current International Class: 11; 07; 11; 11; 01; 10; 10; 07; 01; 01; 10; 10
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