Use of Nickel Oxide Catalysts (Bunsenites) for In-Situ Hydrothermal Upgrading Process of Heavy Oil

Jiménez Padilla Pedro Alonso; Richard Djimasbe; Rustem Zairov; Chengdong Yuan; Ameen A Al-Muntaser; Alexey Stepanov; Guliya Nizameeva; Alexey Dovzhenko; Muneer A Suwaid; Mikhail A Varfolomeev; Almaz L Zinnatullin

doi:10.3390/nano13081351

Use of Nickel Oxide Catalysts (Bunsenites) for In-Situ Hydrothermal Upgrading Process of Heavy Oil

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Apr 12;13(8):1351. doi: 10.3390/nano13081351.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Petroleum Engineering, Kazan Federal University, 420008 Kazan, Russia.
² Department of Physical Chemistry, Kazan Federal University, 420008 Kazan, Russia.
³ Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry, FRC Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 420088 Kazan, Russia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Kazan National Research Technological University, 420015 Kazan, Russia.
⁵ Institute of Physics, Kazan Federal University, 420008 Kazan, Russia.

Abstract

In this study, Nickel oxide-based catalysts (Ni_xO_x) were synthesized and used for the in-situ upgrading process of heavy crude oil (viscosity 2157 mPa·s, and API gravity of 14.1° at 25 °C) in aquathermolysis conditions for viscosity reduction and heavy oil recovery. All characterizations of the obtained nanoparticles catalysts (Ni_xO_x) were performed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray and Diffraction (XRD), and ASAP 2400 analyzer from Micromeritics (USA), methods. Experiments of catalytic and non-catalytic upgrading processes were carried out in a discontinuous reactor at a temperature of 300 °C and 72 bars for 24 h and 2% of catalyst ratio to the total weight of heavy crude oil. XRD analysis revealed that the use of nanoparticles of NiO significantly participated in the upgrading processes (by desulfurization) where different activated form catalysts were observed, such as α-NiS, β-NiS, Ni₃S₄, Ni₉S₈, and NiO. The results of viscosity analysis, elemental analysis, and ¹³C NMR analysis revealed that the viscosity of heavy crude oil decreased from 2157 to 800 mPa·s, heteroatoms removal from heavy oil ranged from S-4.28% to 3.32% and N-0.40% to 0.37%, and total content of fractions (ΣC₈-C₂₅) increased from 59.56% to a maximum of 72.21%, with catalyst-3 thank to isomerization of normal and cyclo-alkanes and dealkylation of lateral chains of aromatics structures, respectively. Moreover, the obtained nanoparticles showed good selectivity, promoting in-situ hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reactions, and hydrogen redistribution over carbons (H/C) is improved, ranging from 1.48 to a maximum of 1.77 in sample catalyst-3. On the other hand, the use of nanoparticle catalysts have also impacted the hydrogen production, where the H₂/CO provided from the water gas shift reaction has increased. Nickel oxide catalysts have the potential for in-situ hydrothermal upgrading of heavy crude oil because of their great potential to catalyze the aquathermolysis reactions in the presence of steam.

Keywords: adsorption; catalyst; heavy oil; hydrothermal upgrading; nickel oxides; synthesis; viscosity.

Grants and funding

This paper has been supported by the Kazan Federal University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (PRIORITY-2030).