Abstract
Oil-soluble catalysts could be of special significance for reducing the viscosity of heavy crude oil, because of their good dispersion in crude oil and high catalytic efficiency toward aquathermolysis. Ferric oleate was synthesized and applied as catalyst in the aquathermolysis reaction of Shengli heavy oil. It was found that ferric oleate was more efficient for heavy oil cracking than Co and Ni oleates. Besides, it was superior to oleic acid and inorganic ferric nitrate and achieved the highest viscosity reduction rate of up to 86.1%. In addition, the changes in the components of Shengli heavy oil before and after aquathermolysis were investigated by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results indicated that ferric oleate contributed to a significant increase in the content of light components and decrease in the content of resin, N and S. The as-prepared ferric oleate showed good activity for reducing the viscosity and improving the quality of the heavy crude oil, showing promising application potential in aquathermolysis of heavy crude oil.
Highlights
With the excessive exploitation and rapid consumption of the conventional oil and gas resources, the exploitation of heavy crude oil and other low-grade oil and gas resources is attracting more and more attention (Huc 2010)
In the 1980s, Hyne and coworkers found that transition metals Ni and Co had a positive effect on the aquathermolysis of heavy oil (Chivers et al 1980; Hyne et al 1982)
It has been found that iron naphthenate (Fan et al 2006) is able to decrease the content of heavy components, thereby effectively reducing the viscosity of the heavy crude oil produced at Shengli Oilfield (Dongying, China)
Summary
With the excessive exploitation and rapid consumption of the conventional oil and gas resources, the exploitation of heavy crude oil and other low-grade oil and gas resources is attracting more and more attention (Huc 2010). Some researchers found that long-chain aromatic sulfonic iron (Wang et al 2010; Li et al 2013) can promote the aquathermolysis of heavy crude oil These iron-based oilsoluble catalysts play the catalytic role of the transition metal and emulsification of organic ligands. It has been reported that nickel oleate, cobalt oleate and molybdenum oleate (Chen et al 2010; Wen et al 2007) had been used to reduce the viscosity of Liaohe heavy oil and could achieve a good catalytic effect. Ferric oleate (Peng 2014) exhibited efficiency for the viscosity reduction in Liaohe heavy crude oil by catalytic upgrading at 350–400 °C. The ferric oleate was prepared and used for the aquathermolysis of the Shengli heavy crude oil at a lower temperature. The carbon and hydrogen content was determined by Elemental Analyzer (EA, vario EL cube)
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