Upgrading of heavy crude oil in supercritical aqueous fluid in the presence of activated charcoal

The article presents the results of deep processing of heavy crude oil in supercritical aqueous fluid, which makes it possible to significantly reduce the content of sulfur and resinous asphaltene compounds in products, and to increase the yield of light fuel fractions. The possibility of reducing the temperature of upgrading of heavy crude oil due to the presence of active charcoal in the reaction medium is shown. The proposed technology provides environmentally safe and residue-free processing of heavy oil and further production of high-quality hydrocarbon raw materials enriched in low-boiling fractions. Keywords: upgrading; heavy crude oil; supercritical aqueous fluid; activated charcoal.

Screening of waterflooding, hot waterflooding and steam injection for extra heavy crude oil production from Tatarstan oilfield

Thermal enhanced oil recovery techniques, especially steam injection, are the most successful techniques for extra heavy crude oil reservoirs. Steam injection and its variations are based on the decrease in oil viscosity with increasing temperature. The main objective of this study is the development of advanced methods for the production of extra heavy crude oil in the oilfield of the Republic of Tatarstan. The filtration experiment was carried out on a bulk model of non-extracted core under reservoir conditions. The experiment involves the injection of slugs of fresh water, hot water and steam. At the stage of water injection, no oil production was observed while during steam injection recovery factor (RF) achieved 13.4 % indicating that fraction of immobile oil and non-vaporizing residual components is high and needed to be recovered by steam assisted EORs.

Evaporation of Heavy Crude Oil in Soil

Heavy crude oil spillage on soil threatens productivity and affects the natural biota of the ecosystem. Evaporation is an important parameter increases crude oil density, viscosity and fraction of lower molecular weight substances which reduce its infiltration into the soil and groundwater. The evaporation of heavy crude oil showed API of 21.5, viscosity of 15mm2/s, density 0.8952 g/cm3, pour point of 11.37. The crude oil was exposed to solar radiation for 35 days. The percentage reduction in mass of the crude oil and temperature on five day interval showed 8.22(38OC) on day 0, on day 5 was 8.13(34oC), on day 10 was 5.92(39oC), on day 15 was 5.38(39oC), on day 20 was 3.16(37oC), on day 25 was 2.94(31oC), on day 20 was 2.56 (41oC) and on day 35 was 1.79(38oC). The lighter molecules evaporated first leaving the heavier molecules behind causing a reduction in the rate of evaporation with time. This analysis will be provide insight to modelling oil spill in terrestrial ecosystem.