An optimization study on quality promotion of heavy crude oil exposed ultrasonic waves and magnetic nanoparticles addition

Abstract

This study aims to investigate a new method of combining ultrasonic waves with different frequencies and magnetic nanoparticles in reducing the asphaltene content and kinematic viscosity of heavy oil. In general, the experiments included irradiation of ultrasonic waves at single-frequency mode, dual-frequency mode, temperature optimization, and the combined effects of the ultrasonic waves and magnetic nanoparticles in a constant magnetic field. The results demonstrated that, the ultrasonic irradiation at an optimum time of 10 min and a constant temperature of 20 °C with a frequency of 25 kHz and a power of 840 W decreased the asphaltene content and kinematic viscosity of the heavy oil from 13.52% and 87.2 cSt to 7.6% and 65.7cSt, respectively. In the dual-frequency mode (25 kHz and 1.7 MHz), the both parameters reduced to 7.33٪ and 62.9cSt. Subsequently the temperature of 50 °C was selected as optimum temperature for the experiments. The experimental optimizations cleared that at the concentration of γ-Fe2O3 magnetic nanoparticles (0.4 wt%) and the dual- frequency, the both parameters were significantly declined (7.1 cSt and 5.01 wt% respectively). Distillation test, FT-IR, SARA analyses and API index have verified that the ultrasonic waves and the magnetic nanoparticles have effectively lightened the studied oil.