Aquathermolysis of heavy oil in the presence of supercritical water

Abstract

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. The purpose of the work is to identify patterns of transformation of high-molecular components of super-heavy oil by hydrothermal-catalytic processes, namely in the presence of a supercritical state of water. The regularities of changes of the component, structural-group, fractional and elemental compositions of heavy oil during the conversion under the above conditions were established, rheological characteristics of the initial crude oil and converted oil were studied as well. As a result of carrying out aquathermolysis in the supercritical water environment and in the presence of carbonaceous substances, the high-molecular weight components of the initial crude oil were degraded with the formation of light distillate fractions, which were scarcely present in the initial crude oil.