Non-thermal plasma assisted catalytic bitumen partial upgrading under methane environment

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Traditionally hydrotreating processes can be used to decrease the viscosity of oil, improve the API gravity, and reduce the sulfur content of the oil. Using hydrogen in bitumen upgrading is well known and can enhance the properties of the oil, but the costs of hydrotreating are relatively high due to the consumption of high pressure H2 (>8 MPa). An alternative approach to obtain the benefits of hydrogen addition is to add a cheap and abundant H-donor to the bitumen, such as methane, the main component of natural gas. The proposed research aims to develop a cost-effective partial upgrading technology to increase the mobility of the bitumen extracted from surface minable oil sands. Reducing the viscosity will satisfy the pipeline transportation specification**while enhancing the quality of the upgraded oil beneficial for its further refining at the other end of the pipeline. This will be done using a technology based on the directly catalytic incorporation of natural gas (i.e. methane - methanotreating) into bitumen at mild temperature and atmospheric pressure under the facilitation of in situ generated plasma in a nonthermal way. The in situ activated and ionized methane then interacts with the broken molecular pieces formed from bitumen thermal cracking, leading to the production of the partially upgraded oil with enhanced oil yield and quality for pipeline transportation under the facilitation of co-existing catalyst. Compared to hydrotreating, such proposed plasma assisted methanotreating is more environmentally friendly and economically profitable. Besides, the proposed research aligns well with the core business of the industrial partner and will help the partner keeping the technical leadership in oil sands and natural gas utilization in the foreseeable future if successfully delivered. In addition, the outcomes obtained from this study will create a novel way of methane activation and liquefaction, leading to the breakthrough in the field of catalysis and its application in clean energy conversion. Moreover, the achievement made from this project will further ascertain the leading position of Canada in the world's energy market through more efficient and cleaner**utilization of heavy crude oil and natural gas which are abundant natural resources in Canada.