Light Oil Fractions Research Articles

Multiple-Integrated Biomarker Indexes to Assess the Responses of the Flatfish Achirus lineatus during Exposure to Light Crude Oil Water Accommodated Fraction.

In the present study, we evaluated the biological response of Achirus lineatus to water accommodated fraction (WAF) of light crude oil (American Petroleum Institute gravity 35°) during a sub-chronic bioassay (14 and 28 days) at two different concentrations: 5% v/v (1.20µg∙L- 1 expressed as total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [∑25 PAH]) and 10% v/v (6.61µg∙L- 1 [∑25 PAH]). The responses were evaluated through the biomarker response index (BRI), the integrated biomarker response (IBRv2) and the bioconcentration factor (BCF). The results showed an increase in biological response in relation to WAF concentration and exposure time, which resulted in a slight and moderate disturbance in the basal condition and bioconcentration level of metals (Pb > Ni > V > Cd) in fish tissue. Results in the present study denote that flatfish such as A. lineatus may be negatively influenced by spilled light crude oil.

Integrated approach to determining the identity of the pollution of adjacent territories with oil products

The methodology of arranging laboratory studies of oil-contaminated soils, soils and bottom sediments to determine the source and composition of hydrocarbon contamination is described. The complex approach to laboratory analysis of samples of oil-contaminated soils, soils and bottom sediments is proposed, which allows a highly reliable identification of the potential source of contamination and/or making conclusions about the identity of the contamination of adjacent territories. The proposed complex of analytical methods includes infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography with mass-selective detection, thin-layer chromatography with flame ionization detection and elemental analysis (C, H, N, S, O). Application of the proposed integrated approach allows highly reliable determination of the nature of oil contamination of soils, estimation of the total gross content of oil products and their hydrocarbon composition, and identification of the potential source of pollution. Possible errors in the interpretation of the results of determining the identity of contamination of territories and the importance of using an integrated approach in drawing conclusions about the source (culprit) of pollution are shown using real soil samples taken from oil-contaminated objects and adjacent territories. The importance of taking into account the losses of volatile oil products at the stage of sample preparation for soil contamination with light oil fractions is demonstrated. The use of standard methods of sample preparation (drying of the samples under study) leads to errors in assessing the level of contamination of territories with volatile hydrocarbons and in the choice of methods of remediation of contaminated territories. To minimize losses of volatile hydrocarbons (petrol and naphtha fractions) at the stage of soil sampling and transportation the use of sorbent is proposed. Addition of a sorbent to the soil contaminated with oil products can reduce losses of volatile hydrocarbons by 15 – 20% in the analyzed samples. Application of the developed complex approach makes it possible to determine the features of the individual hydrocarbon composition, group and elemental composition of petroleum products and identify hydrocarbon indicators (markers) inherent only to a certain type of petroleum product.

Enhanced synergies for product distributions and interactions during co-pyrolysis between corn stover and tyres

Co-pyrolysis has been studied for its potential to recycle energy from biomass and waste tyres, as well as enhance the quality of the bio-oil. In this paper, the TG-FTIR-GC/MS technique and a fast-infrared heated reactor were used to investigate the co-pyrolysis behaviors and mechanism of waste tyres (WT) and corn stover (CS). Based on the TG-FTIR-GC/MS analysis, co-pyrolysis synergy promoted the production of methane and aromatics while inhibiting the formation of CO2. Co-pyrolysis products distribution shows that the best synergy occurred at a ratio of 30 % WT with the highest oil yield deviation of 19.67 % and the lowest water yield deviation of −13.30 %. Response surface method (RSM) was utilized to optimize the oil production and the highest oil yield of 30.25 wt% was acquired at a heating rate of 25 °C/s and a ratio of 40 % WT. According to the oil analysis, the light fraction of oil (gasoline and diesel) was more than 50 % in all conditions and there was a large number of aromatics (more than 30 %) presented in oil. The char characteristics indicated that several metals combined with -S radicals during co-pyrolysis which formed much metal sulfide and sulfate in chars.

Technology of flame‑induction heating of ferrous metal shavings in hot briquetting installations

As a result of the study of flame‑induction heating of steel and cast iron shavings, optimal heating modes, dimensions of the furnace and the ratio of the sizes of its components (gas‑flame and induction heaters) were established, which served as the basis for the development of a new heating technology, which ensures minimization of dimensions in comparison with known analogues, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the furnace. It has been established that at the stage of evaporation and removal of water vapor and light oil fractions from the chips in the temperature range of 100–550 °C until the optimal oil concentration of 1.5–3.0 % is achieved, among all known methods of muffle heating, gas‑flame heating is the most economical and productive heating, and subsequently, when heating a dehydrated porous mass of metal with a density of 1100–1700 kg/m3 to 850 °C – induction heating in an atmosphere of products of thermal sublimation and destruction of coolant. It is advisable to carry out induction heating with a current frequency of 2.0–2.4 kHz with a ratio of the lengths of the gas‑flame and induction heating zones of 2.0–2.5 and the dimensions of the inductor (height to hole diameter) of 3.7–4.0. The degree of oxidation of hot‑pressed briquettes corresponds to the initial oxygen content in the chips: for steel – 1.3–1.7 %, for cast iron – 0.46–0.47 %. The data obtained made it possible to develop a technology for flame‑induction heating of ferrous metal shavings, as well as the design of a small‑sized furnace with a specific productivity of 6500–9500 kg/m2·h and an efficiency of 40–45 %.

Two-fold advancement in LDPE Pyrolysis: Enhancing light oil output and substituting sand with kaolin in a fluidized bed system

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is the second most prevalent waste plastic globally, followed by polypropylene. The pyrolytic conditions required to obtain light oil(≤C12) from LDPE are more stringent than those for polypropylene, water plastics, acrylonitrile, butadiene, styrene, and other materials. Consequently, numerous researchers have underscored the necessity of employing catalysts in LDPE pyrolysis. This study explored the pyrolysis characteristics of LDPE at various temperatures in a non-catalytic fluidized bed reactor. The experiments employed a mixture of sand + kaolin, one of the Si-Al catalysts, to investigate the pyrolysis of LDPE in a fluidized bed reactor at different temperatures. The findings demonstrated that using sand + kaolin as a fluidized bed material significantly enhances the yield of pyrolysis oil while concurrently reducing the gas yield compared to using sand alone. Moreover, a higher light oil fraction was obtained using kaolin (16.67 wt%) at 560 °C compared with 8.6 wt%. In addition, the study revealed that elevated temperatures (520 °C, 560 °C, and 600 °C) led to a reduction in olefins and paraffin, coupled with an increase in the formation of naphthenes, aromatics, and ketones in the pyrolysis oil. Overall, the findings underscore the promising potential of kaolin as an alternative to sand, facilitating the enhanced production of valuable light oil fractions. The insights garnered from this study are invaluable for devising effective waste management strategies.

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Naomaohu Coal Using Combined CaO and Ni/Olivine Catalysts for Simultaneously Improving the Tar and Gas Quality

Catalytic pyrolysis of low-rank coal is currently an effective method for producing high-quality tar and gas. In this study, catalytic upgrading of volatiles from Naomaohu (NMH) coal pyrolysis has been conducted in a two-stage fixed-bed reactor using combined CaO and Ni/olivine (Ni-loaded olivine) catalysts. The effect of catalyst distribution modes and catalytic temperature on the tar and gas quality has been investigated. Simulated distillation and GC-MS analysis have been used to investigate the distribution of tar components. The results indicated that the light oil fraction in tar dramatically increased due to the combination of CaO and Ni/olivine. The CaO-Ni/olivine mode is especially better compared to the layouts of the Ni/olivine-CaO mode and the mixed mode. The CaO-Ni/olivine mode ensures a higher light fraction in tar at 69.3% and a light oil fraction at 29.8% at a catalytic temperature of 450 °C, while the heavy tar fraction decreased to 30.7%. Meanwhile, the contents of benzene (heteroatomic substituents) in tar significantly increased from 2.55% to 6.45% compared with the blank test. In this scenario, CaO breaks down macromolecular compounds in tar and cleaves long-chain esters to produce aliphatic hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons are then dehydrogenated to produce lighter aromatic hydrocarbons over the CaO surface. Subsequently, the volatiles pass through the Ni/olivine catalysis, where ether compounds are produced by means of dehydration reactions. In addition, the CaO absorbs the CO2 in the pyrolysis gas, leading to an elevation of CH4 and H2 concentration. Particularly, the concentration of H2 significantly increased from 16.2% to 30.37%, while the concentration of CO2 significantly decreased from 37.9% to 10.57%. These findings suggest that the usage of combined CaO and Ni/olivine catalysts is beneficial for improving both the tar and gas quality.

Investigation of the Behavior of Hydrocarbons during Crude Oil Fouling by High-Resolution Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Crude oil is probably the most complex natural chemical mixture processed in various ways to make fuel and fine chemicals among a wide range of products in industrial processing. The conditions of those industrial processes often include high temperatures, which often cause undesired chemical reactions. One of those reaction sequences is crude oil fouling, which finally results in the formation of undesired solid deposits of carbon material, a calamity that costs millions of dollars worldwide each year and produces toxic waste. However, the compounds involved in fouling, let alone the underlying reaction mechanisms, are not understood to date. Here, in order to investigate chemical fouling, the process was simulated under laboratory conditions, focusing on hydrocarbons as the main constituents of crude oil. The results demonstrate large differences within the hydrocarbon class of compounds before and after thermal treatment, even for a very light crude oil fraction, which initially does not contain any bigger or heavier compounds. Here, the fouling reaction is simulated and studied on the molecular level using high-resolution mass spectrometry. After thermal treatment, new, higher molecular weight hydrocarbon compounds with high aromaticity were detected. Results indicate that a radical reaction leads to the formation of larger and more aromatic compounds. The findings were verified by the use of a model hydrocarbon compound to study the mechanism.

Recycling waste polyethylene into fuels over Fe/USY catalyst: Evaluation on the catalytic activities of varied iron states

Iron-modified zeolite catalyst has a good application prospect on recycling the waste plastics into value-added fuels via catalytic pyrolysis. Distinguishing the catalytic activities of varied iron states on catalyst is crucial to catalyst designation and plastic-to-fuel process. In this work, we prepared three Fe/USY catalysts, termed Fe(O-550)/USY, Fe(R-300)/USY and Fe(R-450)/USY, that contain different iron states – Fe2O3, Fe3O4 + Fe (dominantly) and Fe respectively, and investigated their catalytic activities in polyethylene pyrolysis for fuel oils. The results show that loading of the iron species on USY zeolite decreases the catalyst acidity. H2 reduction treatment in catalyst preparation has no significant influence on the total acidity but slightly changes the concentration of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. The oil yield after catalysis with different catalysts follows the order: Fe(O-550)/USY (72.5 %) > Fe(R-300)/USY (69.9 %) > Fe(R-450)/USY (66.7 %) > USY (56.5 %). The oil includes a mixture of C6-C34 compounds especially abundant in C6-C10. It is mainly in gasoline and diesel range and consists of alkanes as majority. Generally, loading of the iron species on USY zeolite increases the oil yield and produces lighter oil and more aromatics and alkenes, while the Fe(R-450)/USY shows higher catalytic cracking activity than Fe(O-550)/USY, Fe(R-300)/USY and USY catalysts. Among the varied iron states, the metallic iron is more active than the other iron oxides to promote the catalytic cracking of PE to produce fuel oil, especially the light oil and aromatic fractions.

Development and research of a new nanocomposition for elimination of asphaltene-tar-paraffin deposits

At long-operating fields, due to a drop in reservoir pressure and temperature in the bottom-hole zone of wells as a result of degassing, light oil fractions volatilize and heavy fractions deposit on the rock surface, which leads to weakened filtration and reduced productivity. On the other hand, these particles deposited in the pores hydrophobize the rock surface, and water passing through this surface mixes with the deposited hydrocarbons to form an emulsion. The emulsion formed reduces phase conductivity. For effective exploitation of this type of oil fields, compositions that have a stronger effect on the bottom-hole zone and are more economically feasible have been developed and their properties have been studied. As a result of these studies it was revealed that with the addition of small concentrations of metallic nanoparticles to compositions consisting of solvents and surfactants, the ability of the developed new composition to dissolve asphaltene-tar-paraffin deposits is significantly increased. Keywords: asphaltene-resin-paraffin deposits; metal nanoparticles; surfactants; solvents; new composition.

ReaxFF Molecular Dynamics Study on the Microscopic Mechanism for Kerogen Pyrolysis.

Kerogen is mainly composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are the main components of crude oil and gas. The pyrolysis of kerogen is an efficient method to generate clean energy. In the present work, the pyrolysis reaction process of three types of kerogen is simulated using ReaxFF molecular dynamics (MD) methods to study the microscopic mechanism and the distribution of products. The results indicated that the pyrolysis products of the three types of kerogen significantly depend on the molecular structures, temperature, and reaction time. As the temperature increases, the gaseous hydrocarbon and the light and heavy oil fractions decreased, where small molecular fragments polymerized to form new molecular fragments. For an isothermal temperature, with the reaction proceeding, some component polymerization of the pyrolyzed fragments occurred, resulting in the generation of new light oils and heavy oils. Moreover, quantum chemical analysis was employed to reveal the kerogen pyrolysis mechanism. First, the weak bonds such as C-O, C-N, and C-S structures were decomposed to generate large carbon and some heavy shale oil fragments. Second, the cycloalkanes and long-chain alkanes were decomposed to generate a large amount of light shale oil and gaseous hydrocarbons. Finally, the decomposition of C═C in the aromatic ring, the secondary decomposition of light and heavy shale oils, and the further decomposition of short-chain alkanes occurred. In addition, the production of hydrogen (H2) occurred at the late stage of the pyrolysis reaction. Hydrogen radicals were formed by the decomposition of C-H bonds and subsequently collided with each other, resulting in the formation of H2 molecules. The pyrolysis and chemical analysis of kerogen can clearly determine the type and content of hydrocarbon substances, providing scientific data for exploration, development, and utilization of shale gas and shale oil.

Catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons on modified natural zeolite of the Shankanai deposit (Kazakhstan) with heteropoly acids

The purpose of this research work is to study the main aspects of catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons on modified natural zeolite of the Shankanai deposit (Kazakhstan) with heteropoly acids. The leading methodological approach in this research work is a combination of a systematic analysis of the main aspects of performing catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons with a practical study of the features of the functioning of the Shankanai deposit for obtaining and further practical use of modified natural zeolite and involving scientific experiments to determine the prospects for performing this kind of modifications, for the subsequent use of these zeolites in the processes of catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons. The results obtained in this scientific study are clear evidence of the fact that more light oil fractions are obtained as a result of the catalytic cracking process using modified natural zeolites as a catalyst than as a result of thermal cracking under other similar initial conditions. The results obtained in this research work and the conclusions formulated on their basis are of significant practical importance from the standpoint of the prospects for the development of the Shankanai deposit and the use of the zeolite extracted from it after its modification in the processes of catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons.

Assessing the Level of Pollution and Effectiveness of Soil Rehabilitation Technologies in Case of Crude Oil Spills

It was shown that the use of methods of chemical analysis of oil-contaminated soils recommended for environmental control, showed no more than 50% of the mass of oil introduced into the soil, even in freshly contaminated samples. It was found that main errors were associated with the loss of light oil fractions during drainage of contaminated soil samples, incomplete extraction of pollutant oil from soils, ignoring high-molecular polar oil fractions, resinous and asphaltenic fractions when using these methods. A slight modification of the applied preparatory analytical methods was proposed, wich consisted in replacing the cold extraction of contaminated soil with a hot one, followed by additional weighing of the extracted chloroform prior swing absorption to assess the content of oil products, as well as soil samples for extraction at a natural moisture level without air- dry preconditionning. It was concluded that these changes significantly reduce analytical errors and increase the reliability of monitoring soil pollution during crude oil spills, as well as the effectiveness of rehabilitation actions.

Diffusion coefficient and the volume swelling of CO2/light oil systems: Insights from dynamic volume analysis and molecular dynamics simulation

The oil volume expansion and CO2 diffusion are one of the main mechanism of CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). This paper established a series of experiments, numerical simulations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to describe mass transfer behaviors between oil–gas phases. Expressly, the CO2 diffusion coefficient and light oil swelling factor are signification parameters to quantify and analyze these behaviors. In detail, the CO2 diffusion coefficient and the oil swelling factor were obtained from the traditional pressure decay method and the advanced MD simulation. Synthetically, the pressure decay method and MD simulation results were mutually verified. The results showed that the equilibrium pressure was proportional to the mole fraction of CO2 and inversely proportional to the mole fraction of light oil. The equilibrium time was proportional to the mole fraction of CO2 and light oil. At the temperature of 333.15 K and the initial pressure of 7.5 MPa, the CO2 diffusion coefficient in light oil was positively correlated with the relative molar proportion of CO2, while the light oil swelling factor was vice versa. In addition, the closer to the CO2-light oil interface, the greater the light oil's potential energy and self-diffusion coefficient, and the stronger the transport ability.

Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Pinewood Sawdust: Influence of Reaction Atmosphere

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a thermochemical process for production of biocrude oils, commonly from wet biomass under inert atmosphere (N2). Influence of reaction atmosphere on HTL of pinewood sawdust was investigated in this work, at 300 °C for 60 min with the presence of KOH or H2SO4 catalyst under N2, H2, and O2 atmosphere, respectively. Very interestingly, the reaction atmosphere showed significant influence on both products distribution and properties of the biocrude oils. Generally, H2 atmosphere enhanced biomass degradation in the presence of either KOH or H2SO4 catalyst, producing the highest biocrude oil yield, lowest solid residue yield, and the best oil quality in terms of total acid number (TAN), viscosity and average molecular weights (Mn, Mw). Whereas the HTL in O2 atmosphere showed the poorest performance in terms of yields and properties of biocrude oils. The highest quality of biocrude oil was produced using KOH catalyst in H2 atmosphere with the maximum biocrude yield (approx. 34 wt.%) and the highest energy recovery (ER) in biocrude (ER = 73.14%). The measured properties of the oil are as follows: TAN = 40.2 mg KOH/g, viscosity = 51.2 cp, Mn = 470 g/mol, Mw = 767 g/mol. In addition, the biocrude oils produced in H2 atmosphere contain more light oil (naphtha) fraction (23.9 wt.% with KOH and 16.5 wt.% with H2SO4) with lower boiling points, while those generated in O2 atmosphere have more carboxylic acid compounds.

Rhodium-Based Catalysts: An Impact of the Support Nature on the Catalytic Cyclohexane Ring Opening

Because of the growing demand for high-quality fuels, the light cycle oil fraction improvement including cetane number improvement is important. The main way to reach this improvement is the ring opening of cyclic hydrocarbons, and a highly effective catalyst should be found. Cyclohexane ring openings are a possible option to investigate the catalyst activity. In this work, we investigated rhodium-loaded catalysts prepared using the commercially available industrial supports: single-component ones, SiO2 and Al2O3; and mixed oxides CaO + MgO + Al2O3 and Na2O + SiO2 + Al2O3. The catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and investigated by N2 low-temperature adsorption-desorption, XRD, XPS, DRS UV-Vis and DRIFT spectroscopy, SEM, and TEM with EDX. The catalytic tests were performed in cyclohexane ring opening in the range of 275-325 °C. The best result was demonstrated by the sample 1Rh/CaMgAlO: the selectivity to n-hexane was about 75% while the cyclohexane conversion was about 25% at 275 °C. The space-time yield was up to 12 mmoln-hexane gcat-1h-1.

Interactions of Oil Shale and Hydrogen-Rich Wastes during Co-pyrolysis: Co-pyrolysis of Oil Shale and Waste Tire

Co-pyrolysis of oil shale and waste tire could be an economical and environmental-friendly way to recover waste tire if it could improve the quality and quantity of pyrolytic shale oil. In this paper, a thermogravimetric system coupled with a mass spectrometry system (TG-MS) was applied to investigate pyrolytic behaviors of co-pyrolysis. It was found that co-pyrolysis had little effect on char formation; however, the MS system detected that co-pyrolysis boosted gaseous volatiles of a medium molecular weight as well as H2 and H radicals. Therefore, simulating cells were constructed to run reactive force filed molecular dynamics (ReaxFF MD) simulations, which aim to further investigate mechanisms of co-pyrolysis. In simulations, intermediate products were categorized into six classes according to the carbon number. Simulations indicated that co-pyrolysis had little effect on char mass fractions (40 ≤ C), which coincided with the TG findings. Meanwhile, co-pyrolysis favored the breakage of CC bonds and CO bonds within kerogen and thus resulted in more light shale oil with less heteroatom O. Specifically, a more light oil fraction (5 ≤ C ≤ 9) is the product of rearrangement reactions whose reactants are the gaseous intermediate (C < 5) from CC bond rupture. The heteroatom O from CO bond rupture is much more likely to transform into H2O.

Evaluation on the Effect of Zinc Oxide Addition to Aging Rate of Asphalt and Performance of Resilience Modulus in Asphalt Concrete–Wearing Course

This study discussed the effect of the addition of the antioxidant Zinc Oxide (ZnO) on the aging rate of AC-WC coated asphalt and found out the effect of the addition of ZnO antioxidant on the stiffness of the asphalt layer. The aging of asphalt can be caused by two main factors, namely evaporation of light oil fractions contained in asphalt and oxidation. In this study, it showed that, compared to the addition of 5% and 15% ZnO to asphalt, the addition of 10% ZnO provided the most effective results on the asphalt base affecting the rheological properties of asphalt, namely reducing the penetration value by 1 dmm, increasing the softening point of asphalt by 0.5℃ but reducing the ductility by 10 cm. In the resilience modulus test which was carried out after aging at 135℃ for 0, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 hours, the modulus value containing ZnO was always smaller than that of asphalt without ZnO content. The addition of antioxidant Zinc Oxide (ZnO) antioxidant to asphalt had a positive effect on the aging rate of asphalt and the performance of the open-graded AC-WC resilience modulus of asphalt mixture was effective at an additional 10% level.

Исследование распределения капель водной фазы до и после ультразвуковой обработки устойчивых водонефтяных эмульсий

Interest in application of physical processing methods, in particular, ultrasound technologies, has grown significantly in recent years. Ultrasonic technologies minimize the percentage of water in the extracted oil. The main advantages of the ultrasonic treatment over numerous methods of improving the structural and mechanical properties of heavy metals are its low energy consumption, high efficiency, technical and environmental safety. There have been carried out microscopic studies of the influence of ultrasonic treatment on the disperse phase structure and on the stability of emulsions based on light oil from the Yu. Korchagin field with a mass oil content of 40, 60, 80%. The emulsion stability is shown to become less at the increasing water content in the emulsion. Ultrasonic treatment of stable oil emulsions with 60% of oil content from the Yu. Korchagin field had a significant effect on the emulsion. Both positive (acceleration of stratification) and negative effects (strong heating and evaporation of light oil fractions) were observed. The effectiveness of using ultrasound to intensify the separation of emulsions of the specified composition is confirmed by microscopic analysis of optical images of the emulsion structure, because a significant decrease in the size of water droplets in the layer of the dispersion medium is observed in the course of wave processing.

Oil deposits of the Visean stage of the northeastern part of the Tatarstan Republic

The sections of wells that have discovered oil-bearing deposits of the Bobrikian horizon, within the Aktanysh-Chishminsky trough in the northeast of the Tatarstan, are considered. In the terrigenous complex of the Bobrikian age, alternation of mudstones, siltstones, and sandstones is observed. According to the peculiarities of composition and porosity, mudstones and siltstones are classified as impermeable rocks, sandstone - as reservoir rocks. The study of sandy reservoirs showed that the rocks are characterized by a monomineral quartz composition, uniform oil saturation, fine-grained structure, massive texture. The porosity of sandstones is 15-20%. The pores are connected and form winding channels up to 0.1 mm in diameter. Sandstones form covers over the biogenic structures of the Tournaisian Stage, wedging out laterally and being replaced by dense siltstones. Good capacitive properties of the rock were acquired due to the leaching of calcite cement during the migration of water-oil fluids. Currently, sandstones contain oils with a predominance of light oil and medium paraffin fractions.

Upgrading the atmospheric distillation residue of Al- Samawah refinery utilizing thermal cracking process

Thermal cracking of heavy oil residues has gained the attention of oil refineries due to the increasing need for light oil fractions, as well as its lower value compared to light oil fractions. In this paper, the thermal cracking process of the residual crude oil that product from atmospheric distillation towers in the Samawah Refinery was studied in order to convert the heavy oil into a lighter oil. API gravity and conversion ratio for the result from the cracking process has been adopted as indicators of the accuracy and efficiency of the thermal cracking process for AR (atmospheric residue), where the API gravity for AR is equal to 15.5 .The response surface methodology (RSM) was adopted in the design of experiments to reach the best variables of operational conditions , which were in a range of temperatures (350-450 degrees Celsius) and time (30-60 minutes), through which we obtain the best results for the conversion ratio and API gravity for the liquid resulting from the thermal cracking process of AR, where the conversion ratio was 53.4% and API gravity equals 34.4 with a time of 45 minutes and temperature 386 0C.