Investigating the effect of iron oxide (II, III) nanoparticles on aquathermolysis of heavy oil

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. For many years, enhancing heavy crude oil recovery has been widely considered as an important challenge for many researchers who, as a result, proposed the use of catalytic systems as an alternative way to solve it. Among a wide range of catalytic systems, nano-sized catalysts based on transition metals in several studies showed an effective catalytic activity and high diffusion through reservoir rock porous media during the process of oil aquathermolysis. This paper aims to widen our current knowledge about catalytic oil aquathermolysis by studying the ability of using catalysts based on iron oxide (II, III) nanoparticles combined with hydrogen donor in order to improve heavy oil hydrocarbon content and to reduce its viscosity. Therefore, we performed oil aquathermolysis at 200 and 300°C for 24 hours. In the case of the catalytic process, catalyst content was 0.3 wt % and hydrogen donor content was 3 wt %. As result, SARA analysis of upgraded oil showed a decrease in the resins content by 25 % and an increase in aromatic fractions due to the destruction of C-S bonds compared to the initial oil. Despite the fact that asphaltenes content remained practically constant, their molecular weight decreased. The evidence from this study suggests that heavy oil viscosity decreases by more than 67 % in the presence of nanoparticles based on iron oxide (II, III)