Visbreaking of Heavy Oil in a Mixed Solvent of Subcritical Water and Light Aromatics

To achieve high-efficiency viscosity reduction in a mild hydrothermal environment, the visbreaking of heavy oil in a mixed solvent of subcritical water (sub-CW) and light aromatics was investigated. By solubilizing sub-CW in heavy oil, the dealkylation involved in visbreaking follows not only a free...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2021-06, Vol.60 (25), p.9059-9067
Main Authors: Ling, Hao, Hu, Yu-Yang, Zhu, Ya-Kun, Zhang, Hua-Jie, Shao, Zhi-Cai, Dai, Li-Shun, Huang, Zi-Bin, Yuan, Pei-Qing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Kinetics, Catalysis, and Reaction Engineering
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Summary:To achieve high-efficiency viscosity reduction in a mild hydrothermal environment, the visbreaking of heavy oil in a mixed solvent of subcritical water (sub-CW) and light aromatics was investigated. By solubilizing sub-CW in heavy oil, the dealkylation involved in visbreaking follows not only a free radical mechanism but also an ionic mechanism. The further introduction of light cycle oil rich in light aromatics but containing olefin groups has a complicated influence on visbreaking. Because of the presence of olefin groups, the viscosity reduction efficiency is initially reduced. In addition, the condensation to asphaltenes is promoted in the late visbreaking stage. However, these adverse effects are offset by the promotion of the solubilization of sub-CW in heavy oil by light aromatics. With enhanced dealkylation in both free radical and ionic mechanisms, a viscosity reduction rate of over 90% and reduced asphaltene formation can be obtained in the middle stage of visbreaking.
ISSN:0888-5885
1520-5045
DOI:10.1021/acs.iecr.1c01093