Thermocatalytic upgrading of heavy oil by iron oxides nanoparticles synthesized by oil-soluble precursors

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Thermocatalytic upgrading of heavy crude oil at reservoir temperature and pressure has been studied. The objective of the present work was to investigate the efficiency of the compounds based on iron (iron carbonyls, iron oxide, metallic iron) on thermocatalytic upgrading process of heavy crude oil at reservoir temperature and pressure (5.0 MPa and up to 523.15 K). The viscosity reducing was used as the main parameter for determination of the efficiency of thermocatalytic upgrading. The effect of structure of the catalyst precursor on the composition of SARA fractions after thermal catalytic upgrading of crude oil was analyzed. A destruction of mainly resin fraction was found to occur during thermocatalytic upgrading of heavy crude oil. The composition and structure of catalysts after crude oil upgrading were determined by the X-powder diffraction and SEM methods. An impact of catalyst (Fe3O4) particle size on the efficiency of crude oil thermocatalytic upgrading process was revealed.