Heavy Oil Upgrading with HTL Technology

Heavy-To-Light (HTL) upgrading technology uses a novel circulating fluid bed to process heavy oil at the wellhead. HTL successfully converts a virtually solid bitumen to a stable, significantly upgraded synthetic crude oil (SCO) that meets pipeline requirements. Product properties of an integrated HTL with heavy-oil production configuration reduce or eliminate the use of diluents. The HTL heat balance provides by-product energy to generate steam or electricity, instead of natural gas. Integrated HTL heavy-oil production processing reduces liquid, solid, and gaseous waste and emissions. This paper provides a description of the HTL upgrading process with feed and products.