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

随着对高价值石油产品的需求不断增加以及原油来源变得越来越非常规，对有效的重油改质方法的需求日益增长。改质工艺涉及将重馏分转化为轻馏分、馏出物，具有更高的氢碳比并去除杂原子，这最终改善了燃烧特性并减少了燃料利用对环境的影响。主要的改质工艺属于加氢裂化和/或热裂化，这可能涉及催化剂。催化改质是重油转化为轻质产品的最有前途的技术。该催化剂通过降低给定反应的活化能势垒来降低改质反应的剧烈程度并提高选择性。重油通过催化和热反应裂化和加氢以产生更有价值的馏分。用于残渣提质的典型催化剂是负载在氧化铝和/或二氧化硅基质上的钼、钴、镍和/或钨的氧化物。 超分散催化与传统的固定床和流化床催化相比具有许多优点。除了提供一个理想的平台，耦合原位回收和升级，超分散催化减少了活性表面和反应物种之间的传质限制，同时提供了一个广泛的活性区域，反应可以发生，特别是当分散的颗粒是在纳米域。 我的研究小组最近的工作集中在研究在重油中原位制备各种分散的金属/金属氧化物纳米颗粒。拟议的工作旨在研究原位制备的超分散金属/金属氧化物纳米粒子在重油改质中的作用，包括加氢裂化和热裂化。

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.