The work studied a non-catalytic upgrading of fast pyrolysis bio-oil by blending under supercritical conditions using methanol, ethanol and isopropanol as solvent and hydrogen donor. Characterisation of the bio-oil and the upgraded bio-oils was carried out including moisture content, elemental content, pH, heating value, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS), Fourier transform infrared radiation, 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis to evaluate the effects of blending and supercritical reactions. The GCMS analysis indicated that the supercritical methanol reaction removed the acids in the bio-oil consequently the pH increased from 2.39 in the crude bio-oil to 4.04 after the supercritical methanol reaction. The ester contents increased by 87.49% after the supercritical methanol reaction indicating ester formation could be the major deacidification mechanism for reducing the acidity of the bio-oil and improving its pH value. Simply blending crude bio-oil with isopropanol was effective in increasing the C and H content, reducing the O content and increasing the heating value to 27.55 from 17.51 MJ$kg-1 in the crude bio-oil. After the supercritical isopropanol reaction, the heating value of the liquid product slightly further increased to 28.85 MJ$kg-1 .
This work studied the facilitation of the transportation of Missan heavy crude oil characterized with high viscosity 84.61 cp at 15 °C, low API 23.1, by reducing its viscosity from break down asphaltene agglomerates using five solvents with some novel combinations of chemical additives were used for this study (naphtha & toluene, naphtha & xylene, naphtha & kerosene, toluene & kerosene, and xylene & kerosene).The viscosity of crude oil was measured after being treated with these chemicals at different concentrations (4, 8, and 12 weight%) and temperatures 15, 25, 35, and 45 °C. It has been found that increasing the concentration of naphtha with xylene from 4% to 12% causes a decrease in viscosity, from 48.62 cp at 15°C to 30.11 cp. The viscosity of a mixture of naphtha and kerosene drops from 50.15 cp at 15°C to 31.70 cp when the concentration is raised from 4% to 12%. The addition of toluene to kerosene causes the viscosity to drop from 51.76 cp at 15°C to 33.67 cp when the concentration of toluene is raised from 4% to 12%. Increasing the xylene concentration from 4% to 12% in kerosene led to a decrease in viscosity from 53.65 cp at 15°C to 34.88 cp at the same temperature. The findings of the present work could be applied to the petroleum industry for the purpose of transporting heavy oil of Missan or any other heavy crude.
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