The Mild Oxidative Degradation of the Heavy Constituents in Viscous Crude Oils/Oil Sands and Its Prospect in Oil Recovery

Abstract

Viscous crude oils and oil sands are important energy resources, but it is difficult to exploit them due to the dominated heavy constituents such as asphaltenes. In this work, the mild oxidative degradation of the heavy constituents (oxidized by NaIO4/NaH2PO4 and 30% H2O2/CH3COOH) has been carried out. In the viscous oils, more than 45% asphaltenes has been degraded, and the asphaltenes are mainly chemically changed into the resin fractions, which is favorable to the stability of viscous crude oils. After the degradation, the total amount of extractable organic compounds from oil sands has been markedly increased than that of the blank experiment. The experimental results indicate that the mild oxidative degradation of asphaltenes can improve the physicochemical properties of the viscous oils and oil sands, which is particularly in favor of the exploitation of these energy resources.