An Enhanced-Solvent Deasphalting Process: Effect of Inclusion of SiO₂Nanoparticles in the Quality of Deasphalted Oil

Abstract

In this work, the effect of nanoparticles in deasphalting heavy oil and extra-heavy oil process at laboratory-scale based on the conventional solvent deasphalting process was studied and named enhanced-solvent deasphalting (e-SDA) process. This work evaluated the effect of the nanoparticles of SiO2in the separation efficiency based on deasphalted oil (DAO) fraction quality compared to the conventional process of deasphalting (SDA). Different effects have been assessed such as solvent to oil ratio, operating temperatures, type of solvent, and SiO2nanoparticles dosage. The DAO quality was based on the asphaltene and sulfur contents, API gravity, distillable fraction, and rheological properties. The improvement of the process from the use of nanoparticles was confirmed with important reductions in the asphaltene and sulfur contents in the DAO of up to 24% and 23%, respectively, in comparison with the SDA process. Also, the API gravity can be increased by approximately 14% with thee-SDA process. The rheological properties of the DAO were improved by the inclusion of nanoparticles showing reductions in the viscosities of the DAO greater than 50% in comparison with the conventional process. These results lead to the conclusion that thee-SDA process improves the DAO quality when compared with the typical deasphalting process.

Influence of Nanosilica on Solvent Deasphalting for Upgrading Iraqi Heavy Crude Oil

“…Improving API with SOR increases is due to increasing the solvent power and selectivity toward asphaltene removal and, subsequently, to a steady state at SOR (16 ml/g). This agrees with th e results obtained by 17,18 .…”

Reduction of Sulfur in Fuel oil Using Fe2O3 Hybrid Nanoadsorbent by Solvent Deasphalting and Optimization of Operational Parameters with CCD

“…In this case, increasing the temperature causes a difference in the solubility parameters and molar volume between the solvent and the fuel, which creates a broader region in the solvent-asphaltene-DAO ternary system [42,43]. In the case of using Silanated-Fe 2 O 3 nano-adsorbent, the weight percentage of remaining sulfur in DAO reached 2.13 at 70°C, indicating a 39.14% decrease compared to the primary fuel.…”

Upgrading API and Specific Gravity Specifications of Iraqi Crude Oil Using a Laboratory-Built Multipumping Fuel Analysis (MPFA) System

“…Another possible reason that may affect the mixing coil is its geometry. The mixing coil is wrapped in a helical shape; this allows the solvents to disperse in the crude oil in both axial and radial ways, which in turn led to an increase in the efficiency of the mixing and extraction processes [33]. As shown in Table 5, the mixing coil length variable has a significant effect on the deasphalting process since the p-value is less than 0.05.…”