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In-situ microwave-assisted catalytic upgrading of heavy oil: experimental validation and effect of catalyst pore structure on activity.

ABSTRACT: In-situ combustion alone may not provide sufficient heating for downhole, catalytic upgrading of heavy oil in the Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) process. In this study, a new microwave heating technique has been proposed as a strategy to provide the requisite heating. Microwave technology is alone able to provide rapid heating which can be targeted at the catalyst packing and/or the incoming oil in its immediate vicinity. It was demonstrated, contrary to previous assertions, that heavy oil can be heated directly with microwaves to 425°C, which is the temperature needed for successful catalytic upgrading, without the need for an additional microwave susceptor. Upgrading of > 3.2° API points, a reduction in viscosity to less than 100 cP, and > 12% reduction in sulfur content was achieved using commercially available hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst. The HDS catalyst induced dehydrogenation, with nearly 20% hydrogen detected in the gas product. Hence, in THAI field settings, part of the oil-in-place could be sacrificed for dehydrogenation, with the produced hydrogen directed to aid hydrodesulfurization and improve upgrading. Further, this could provide a route for downhole hydrogen production, which can contribute to the efforts towards the hydrogen economy. A single, unified model of evolving catalyst structure was developed. The model incorporated the unusual gas sorption data, computerized x-ray tomography and electron microprobe characterization, as well as the reaction behavior. The proposed model also highlighted the significant impact of the particular catalyst fabrication process on the catalytic activity.

SUBMITTER: Adam M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7578747 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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In-situ microwave-assisted catalytic upgrading of heavy oil: Experimental validation and effect of catalyst pore structure on activity.

Adam Mohamed M Anbari Hossein H Hart Abarasi A Wood Joseph J Robinson John P JP Rigby Sean P SP

Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) 20201022

In-situ combustion alone may not provide sufficient heating for downhole, catalytic upgrading of heavy oil in the Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) process. In this study, a new microwave heating technique has been proposed as a strategy to provide the requisite heating. Microwave technology is alone able to provide rapid heating which can be targeted at the catalyst packing and/or the incoming oil in its immediate vicinity. It was demonstrated, contrary to previous assertions, that heavy oil can ...[more]

PMID: 33106747

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Project description:In this study, Nickel oxide-based catalysts (NixOx) were synthesized and used for the in-situ upgrading process of heavy crude oil (viscosity 2157 mPa·s, and API gravity of 14.1° at 25 °C) in aquathermolysis conditions for viscosity reduction and heavy oil recovery. All characterizations of the obtained nanoparticles catalysts (NixOx) were performed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray and Diffraction (XRD), and ASAP 2400 analyzer from Micromeritics (USA), methods. Experiments of catalytic and non-catalytic upgrading processes were carried out in a discontinuous reactor at a temperature of 300 °C and 72 bars for 24 h and 2% of catalyst ratio to the total weight of heavy crude oil. XRD analysis revealed that the use of nanoparticles of NiO significantly participated in the upgrading processes (by desulfurization) where different activated form catalysts were observed, such as α-NiS, β-NiS, Ni3S4, Ni9S8, and NiO. The results of viscosity analysis, elemental analysis, and 13C NMR analysis revealed that the viscosity of heavy crude oil decreased from 2157 to 800 mPa·s, heteroatoms removal from heavy oil ranged from S-4.28% to 3.32% and N-0.40% to 0.37%, and total content of fractions (ΣC8-C25) increased from 59.56% to a maximum of 72.21%, with catalyst-3 thank to isomerization of normal and cyclo-alkanes and dealkylation of lateral chains of aromatics structures, respectively. Moreover, the obtained nanoparticles showed good selectivity, promoting in-situ hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reactions, and hydrogen redistribution over carbons (H/C) is improved, ranging from 1.48 to a maximum of 1.77 in sample catalyst-3. On the other hand, the use of nanoparticle catalysts have also impacted the hydrogen production, where the H2/CO provided from the water gas shift reaction has increased. Nickel oxide catalysts have the potential for in-situ hydrothermal upgrading of heavy crude oil because of their great potential to catalyze the aquathermolysis reactions in the presence of steam.

Project description:While simulating toe-to-heel air injection (THAI), which is a variant of conventional in situ combustion that uses a horizontal producer well to recover mobilized partially upgraded heavy oil, the chemical kinetics is one of the main sources of uncertainty because the hydrocarbon must be represented by the use of oil pseudo-components. There is, however, no study comparing the predictive capability of the different kinetics schemes used to simulate the THAI process. From the literature, it was determined that the thermal cracking kinetics schemes can be broadly divided into two: split and direct conversion schemes. Unlike the former, the latter does not depend on the selected stoichiometric coefficients of the products. It is concluded that by using a direct conversion scheme, the extent of uncertainty imposed by the kinetics is reduced as the stoichiometric coefficients of the products are known with certainty. Three models, P, G, and B, each with their own different kinetics schemes, were successfully validated against a three-dimensional combustion cell experiment. In models P and G, which do not take low-temperature oxidation (LTO) into account, the effect of oil pseudo-component combustion reactions is insignificant. For model B, which included LTO reactions, LTO was also found to be insignificant because only a small fraction of oxygen bypassed the combustion front and the combustion zone was maintained at temperatures of over 600°C. Therefore, in all the models, it is observed that coke deposition was due to the thermal cracking taking place ahead of the combustion zone. During the first phase of the combustion, peak temperature curves of models P, G, and B closely matched the experimental curve, albeit with some deviations by up to 100°C between 90 and 120 min. After the increase in the air injection flux, only the model P curve overlapped the experimental curve. The model P cumulative oil production curve deviated from the experimental one by only a relative error of 4.0% compared to deviations in models G and B by relative errors of 6.0 and 8.3%, respectively. Consequently, it follows that model P provided better predictions of the peak temperature and cumulative oil production. The same conclusion can be drawn with regard to the produced oxygen concentration and combustion front velocity. With regard to American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity, it is found that all the three models predicted very similar trends to the experiment, just like in the case of the oil production rate curves, and therefore, no model, in these two cases, can be singled out as the best. Also, all the models' predictions of the produced CO X concentration prior to the increase in the air flux closely match the experimental curve. There are, however, serious differences, especially by model P, from the reported experimental curve by up to 15% after the increase in the air flux.

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In-situ microwave-assisted catalytic upgrading of heavy oil: experimental validation and effect of catalyst pore structure on activity.

Publications

In-situ microwave-assisted catalytic upgrading of heavy oil: Experimental validation and effect of catalyst pore structure on activity.

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