In-situ prepared nanoparticles and their role in heavy oil upgrading

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There is a growing need for effective heavy oil upgrading processes as the demand for high value petroleum products is mounting and the sources of crude oil are becoming more and more unconventional. Upgrading processes involve converting heavy fractions into light fractions, distillates, with higher hydrogen to carbon ratio and removing heteroatoms, which ultimately improve the combustion characteristics and reduce the environmental impact of fuel utilization. Major upgrading processes fall under hydrocracking and/or thermalcracking, which may involve catalysts. Catalytic upgrading is the most promising technology for the conversion of heavy oils into lighter products. The catalyst reduces the severity of the upgrading reactions and enhances the selectivity by reducing the activation energy barrier of given reactions. Heavy oil is cracked and hydrogenated by both catalytic and thermal reactions to produce more valuable distillates. Typical catalysts used in residue upgrading are oxides of molybdenum, cobalt, nickel and/or tungsten supported on a matrix of alumina and/or silica. Ultradispersed catalysis has many advantages over the conventional fixed and fluidized bed catalysis. In addition to offering an ideal platform for coupling in-situ recovery and upgrading, ultradispersed catalysis reduces mass transfer limitations between the active surface and the reacting species while providing an extensive active area were reactions can take place, especially when the dispersed particles are in the nano domain. Recent efforts in my research group have focused on studying the in-situ preparation of a wide variety of dispersed metal/metal oxide nanoparticles in heavy oil. The proposed work aims at investigating the role of the in-situ prepared ultradispersed metal/metal oxide nanoparticles in heavy oil upgrading; including hydrocracking and thermalcracking.