Abstract
The main problem of new crude oil reserves is the incipient increase of heavy crude oils in the American continent, i.e. USA, Mexico, Canada and Venezuela. These types of crude oils require several treatments before refining. One of these treatments can be hydrocracking. In this petroleum refining process, it is possible to modify the heavy crude oils to light crude oils. In this paper, we try to use hydrocracking to improve the quality of raw heavy crude oil, through some chemical transformations C-H binding rupture using a catalyst containing active metals such as tungsten and zirconium (W-Zr). After the crude oil was hydrocracked in presence of this novel bimetallic catalyst, the hydrocracked products showed lower content of asphaltenes, resins, sulfur and nitrogen. Also positive changes in the viscosity of crude oil measured as a decreasing of this value were observed. The American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity was significantly increased 6 units. Consequently, all these changes confirmed that the upgrading of the heavy crude oil was successful.
Highlights
The International Energy Agency reported in 2009 that the demand for crude oil has increased over the last 40 years by 150% and, by 20% in the past two decades, to reach a current demand of 80 million barrels per day
It is estimated that there are 8 - 9 trillion barrels of heavy crude oil and bitumen around the world, of which potentially 900 billion barrels of crude oil are commercially exploitable with modern technology [3]-[5]
The purpose of this work is to study the behavior of an acid catalyst formulated with tungsten and zirconium, in the upgrading of the properties of a heavy crude oil
Summary
The International Energy Agency reported in 2009 that the demand for crude oil has increased over the last 40 years by 150% and, by 20% in the past two decades, to reach a current demand of 80 million barrels per day. It is projected to grow 1.4% per year for the 30 years and reach 118 million barrels per day by 2030 [1] [2]. This oil demand comes at time when there is a gradual reduction in the supply of relatively cheap conventional. Better methods are needed to upgrade partially the heavy crude oil before further processing in refineries in order to convert it into light crude oil [4]-[7]
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