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Catalytic Upgrading of Heavy Oil Resources Under Methane

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Methane Activation and Utilization in the Petrochemical and Biofuel Industries

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Abstract

Due to the scarcity of conventional oil resources and increased global energy consumption, unconventional oil resources with abundant reserves such as heavy oil are drawing more attention in the last decades. However, because of the high density and viscosity of unconventional oil and conventional hydrotreatment, it is critical to produce transportable oil product with better quality, which consumes high pressure of expensive hydrogen. To solve this issue, a novel idea is to replace hydrogen with another hydrogen donor such as methane. This chapter included several studies that confirmed the catalytic upgrading of heavy oil that can be conducted under methane atmosphere. Over optimized catalyst, co-fed methane can be nonoxidatively activated to provide hydrogen for heavy oil upgrading under low-temperature and low-pressure reaction condition, and the quality of collected oil product is greatly enhanced in terms of viscosity, density, and total acid number. Due to the complex composition of bitumen, the related model compound studies for this process are also introduced in this chapter. In general, this technology provides a cost-effective solution for heavy oil upgrading, which will have great impact on petrochemical industry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Hua Song, Jack Jarvis, Shijun Meng, Hao Xu, Zhaofei Li & Wenping Li

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  1. Hua Song
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  2. Jack Jarvis
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  3. Shijun Meng
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  4. Hao Xu
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  5. Zhaofei Li
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  6. Wenping Li
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Song, H., Jarvis, J., Meng, S., Xu, H., Li, Z., Li, W. (2022). Catalytic Upgrading of Heavy Oil Resources Under Methane. In: Methane Activation and Utilization in the Petrochemical and Biofuel Industries. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88424-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88424-6_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-88424-6

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