An efficient treatment of ultra-heavy asphaltic crude oil using electron beam technology

An efficient treatment of ultra-heavy asphaltic crude oil using electron beam technology

Type	Journal Article
Author	Masoud Alfi
Author	Maria A. Barrufet
URL	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236115003361
Volume	154
Pages	152-160
Publication	Fuel
Date	August 15, 2015
Abstract	Electron beam technology is a promising energy-efficient process for treatment of ultra-heavy asphaltic petroleum fluids. While heavy oil resources are among the most abundant sources of energy, extraction, transportation, and processing of these fluids remain a challenge. The contribution of these hydrocarbon resources to the energy market has been impacted by the fact that the conventional upgrading and visbreaking methods demand a considerable energy investment. Researchers coupled electron beam irradiation with conventional thermal processing methods to find an energy-efficient way of improving unfavorable properties of heavy asphaltic hydrocarbons. Study results showed that in samples with high asphaltene content, electron radiation impacts the reaction mechanism of the thermal cracking process. In fact, high energy electrons interact with aromatic structures of asphaltene molecules, resulting in products with a different hydrocarbon component distribution and time-stability properties, as opposed to the simple thermal cracking case. On the other hand, experiments showed thermal and radiation thermal cracking processes follow a similar reaction mechanism for hydrocarbons of low asphaltene content.