Saturates and aromatics characterization in heavy crude oil upgrading using Ni–Co/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts

Abstract

The saturates and aromatic constituents of the resulting light crude oil during catalytic and thermal upgrading of Omani heavy crude oil were further characterized to elucidate the crucial role of Ni–Co/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst and gas media. GC-MS analysis confirms that water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) promotes a type of hydrogenation reaction resulting in higher saturates contents of the upgraded oil in nitrogen media. In a bid to buttress the relevance of the catalyst, C₇–C₃₀ homologous series results show that the quantities of marketable components in the crude oil were higher with catalytic upgrading than thermal cracking.

Keywords:

• aquathermolysis
• FT-IR
• gas chromatography
• heavy oil upgrading
• Ni–Co/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst
• water-gas shift reaction

Acknowledgments

Avbenake Onoriode Paul would like to acknowledge the assistance of Umar Omar in calibrating the GC-FID for analysis, and Abdulahi Yusuf in obtaining the heavy crude oil sample from Petroleum Department Oman (PDO).

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.