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Catalysts
Special Issues
Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges
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Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Catalysis for Sustainable Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2023) | Viewed by 11135

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexey V. Vakhin

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Guest Editor
Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies, Kazan Federal University, 18 Kremlyovskaya St., P.O. Box 420008, Kazan, Russia
Interests: EOR; heavy oil; aquathermolysis; catalysts; thermal analysis; EM heating; nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mohammed Amine Khelkhal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya Str. 18, 420008 Kazan, Russian
Interests: kinetics; catalysis; EOR; surface chemistry; nanotechnology; aquathermolysis; oxidation
Dr. Rakesh K Sharma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, NH-62, Nagaur Road, Karwad, Jodhpur 342037, India
Interests: in-situ combustion; heterogeneous catalysis; nanotechnology; bio-fuels; thermodynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

A striking feature of unconventional oil exploitation and development is the lack of effective technologies which should be able to improve their extraction and simultaneously protect the environment. For many years, the focus has been on a very limited selection of methods, such as thermal enhanced oil recovery. The next decade is likely to witness a considerable rise in catalytic applications for improving the worldwide production of oil. Moreover, research approaches in petroleum technologies have recommended the use of metal-based materials in a wide range of research aiming to improve oil production with high-quality content. The present Special Issue, titled “Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges”, will discuss how to solve the problems related to unconventional oil exploitation using cheap and ecologically friendly materials. This Special Issue calls into question the mechanisms, kinetics and thermodynamics of aquathermolysis, pyrolysis, EM-heating and oxidation processes. We believe that the present Special Issue will help in the development of innovative solutions in enhanced oil recovery.

Dr. Alexey V. Vakhin
Dr. Mohammed A. Khelkhal
Dr. Rakesh K Sharma
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • EOR
  • kinetics
  • thermodynamics
  • catalysis
  • nanoparticles
  • EM-heating
  • pyrolysis
  • oxidation

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3580 KiB  
Article
Aquathermolysis of Heavy Crude Oil: Comparison Study of the Performance of Ni(CH3COO)2 and Zn(CH3COO)2 Water-Soluble Catalysts
by Yasser I. I. Abdelsalam, Firdavs A. Aliev, Oybek O. Mirzayev, Sergey A. Sitnov, Vladimir E. Katnov, Leysan A. Akhmetzyanova, Rezeda E. Mukhamatdinova and Alexey V. Vakhin
Catalysts 2023, 13(5), 873; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13050873 - 11 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2090
Abstract
Aquathermolysis is one of the crucial processes being considered to successfully upgrade and irreversibly reduce the high viscosity of heavy crude oil during steam enhanced oil recovery technologies. The aquathermolysis of heavy oil can be promoted by transition metal-based catalysts. In this study, [...] Read more.
Aquathermolysis is one of the crucial processes being considered to successfully upgrade and irreversibly reduce the high viscosity of heavy crude oil during steam enhanced oil recovery technologies. The aquathermolysis of heavy oil can be promoted by transition metal-based catalysts. In this study, the catalytic performance of two water-soluble catalysts Ni(CH3COO)2 and Zn(CH3COO)2 on the aquathermolytic upgrading of heavy oil at 300 °C for 24 h was investigated in a high pressure–high temperature (HP-HT) batch reactor. The comparison study showed that nickel acetate is more effective than zinc acetate in terms of viscosity reduction at 20 °C (58% versus 48%). The viscosity alteration can be mainly explained by the changes in the group composition, where the content of resins and asphaltenes in the upgraded heavy crude oil sample in the presence of nickel catalyst was reduced by 44% and 13%, respectively. Moreover, the nickel acetate-assisted aquathermolysis of heavy oil contributed to the increase in the yield of gasoline and diesel oil fractions by 33% and 29%, respectively. The activity of the compared metal acetates in hydrogenation of the crude oil was judged by the results of the atomic H/C ratio. The atomic H/C ratio of crude oil upgraded in the presence of Ni(CH3COO)2 was significantly increased from 1.52 to 2.02. In addition, the catalyst contributed to the desulfurization of crude oil, reducing the content of sulfur in crude oil from 5.55 wt% to 4.51 wt% The destructive hydrogenation of resins and asphaltenes was supported by the results of gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy analysis methods. The obtained experimental results showed that using water-soluble catalysts is effective in promoting the aquathermolytic reactions of heavy oil and has a great potential for industrial-scale applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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15 pages, 3860 KiB  
Article
Influence of Sodium Metal Nanoparticles on the Efficiency of Heavy Oil Aquathermolysis
by Vladimir E. Katnov, Sofya A. Trubitsina, Aydar A. Kayumov, Firdavs A. Aliev, Nafis A. Nazimov, Aleksey V. Dengaev and Alexey V. Vakhin
Catalysts 2023, 13(3), 609; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13030609 - 17 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1595
Abstract
In this study, for the first time we investigated the in situ upgrading performance of Na metal nanoparticles, which were obtained by dispersing small pieces of sodium in liquid paraffin up to certain dispersity. In situ aquathermolytic reactions were modeled in a high [...] Read more.
In this study, for the first time we investigated the in situ upgrading performance of Na metal nanoparticles, which were obtained by dispersing small pieces of sodium in liquid paraffin up to certain dispersity. In situ aquathermolytic reactions were modeled in a high pressure–high temperature reactor coupled with a Gas Chromatography (GC) system at a temperature of 250 °C for 24 h using a heavy oil sample, produced from the Ashal’cha reservoir, Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). The mean particle size of Na nanoparticles was 6.5 nm determined by the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) method. The nanoparticles were introduced to the reaction medium with a concentration of 2 wt.% The upgrading performance of Na nanoparticles was evaluated by several analytical methods such as Gas Chromatography (GC), elemental analysis (CHNS), SARA, Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS), FT-IR spectroscopy and viscosity measurements. It was revealed that Na nanoparticles interact with water to yield hydrogen gas, the concentration of which increases from 0.015 to 0.805 wt.% Moreover, the viscosity of upgraded heavy oil was reduced by more than 50% and the content of low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons in saturated and aromatics fractions was increased. The Na nanoparticles contributed to the utilization of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide by 99 and 94 wt.%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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20 pages, 4603 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Oil Recovery by In-Reservoir Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide Using Na-Fe3O4
by Firdavs Aliev, Temurali Kholmurodov, Oybek Mirzayev, Arash Tajik, Nurali Mukhamadiev, Olga Slavkina, Nuriya Nourgalieva and Alexey Vakhin
Catalysts 2023, 13(1), 153; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13010153 - 09 Jan 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1560
Abstract
In-situ conversion of carbon dioxide into value-added products is an essential process in terms of heavy oil upgrading and utilization of the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas. In this paper, we discuss a synthesis of sodium-coated magnetite (Fe3O4) particles for [...] Read more.
In-situ conversion of carbon dioxide into value-added products is an essential process in terms of heavy oil upgrading and utilization of the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas. In this paper, we discuss a synthesis of sodium-coated magnetite (Fe3O4) particles for in-reservoir hydrogenation of CO2. The performance of the obtained catalyst was tested in upgrading of heavy oil in a High Pressure/High Temperature (HPHT) reactor imitating the reservoir conditions during steam injection techniques. The experiments were conducted for 48 h in a CO2 environment under the steam temperature and pressure of 250 °C and 90 bar, respectively. The results showed irreversible viscosity reduction of oil from 3931 mPa.s to 2432 mPa.s after the degassing of unreacted carbon dioxide. The content of resins in the composition of upgraded oil was significantly altered from 32.1 wt% to 19.01 wt%, while the content of aromatics rose from 32.5 wt% to 48.85 wt%. The GC-MS results show the presence of alkyl benzenes and phenanthrenes, which were initially concentrated in resins and asphaltenes, in the aromatics fraction of upgraded crude oil. Thus, Na-Fe3O4 exhibits promising results for in-situ heavy oil upgrading through the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, which contributes not only to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but also enhances heavy oil recovery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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13 pages, 2740 KiB  
Article
Ex Situ Upgrading of Extra Heavy Oil: The Effect of Pore Shape of Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 Catalysts
by Alexey Y. Kirgizov, Baodong Ding, Artur A. Spiridonov, Lei Liu, Artem I. Laskin, Chang Cao, Il’dar R. Il’yasov, Ameen A. Al-Muntaser, Xiaodong Zhou, Radik A. Zinnatov, Alexander A. Lamberov, Chengdong Yuan and Mikhail A. Varfolomeev
Catalysts 2022, 12(10), 1271; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12101271 - 18 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1719
Abstract
Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalysts with different pore shapes were synthesized for the ex situ upgrading of extra heavy oils by hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodemetallization (HDM), and hydrodeasphaltization (HDA). The catalysts were synthesized using aluminum oxides that were prepared by various methods. It was [...] Read more.
Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalysts with different pore shapes were synthesized for the ex situ upgrading of extra heavy oils by hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodemetallization (HDM), and hydrodeasphaltization (HDA). The catalysts were synthesized using aluminum oxides that were prepared by various methods. It was found that using the product obtained by the thermochemical activation of gibbsite leads to the formation of slit-shaped pores in aluminum oxide, while the application of the hydroxide deposition method by the precipitation of sodium aluminate and nitric acid gives cylindrical pores in aluminum oxide. Co-Mo catalysts synthesized using these two types of pores exhibit different catalytic activities. The catalyst synthesized on a carrier with cylindrical pores exhibited a higher catalytic activity in sulfur, heavy metals, and asphaltenes removal reactions that are synthesized on a carrier with slit-like pores. This is because the presence of cylindrical pores leads to a decrease in diffusion restrictions when removing large molecules of asphaltenes and sulfur-containing and metal-containing compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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15 pages, 3373 KiB  
Article
Octahedral Cluster Complex of Molybdenum as Oil-Soluble Catalyst for Improving In Situ Upgrading of Heavy Crude Oil: Synthesis and Application
by Omar F. Al-Mishaal, Muneer A. Suwaid, Ameen A. Al-Muntaser, Mohammed Amine Khelkhal, Mikhail A. Varfolomeev, Richard Djimasbe, Rustem R. Zairov, Shadi A. Saeed, Natalya A. Vorotnikova, Michael A. Shestopalov, Chengdong Yuan and Mohammed Hail Hakimi
Catalysts 2022, 12(10), 1125; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12101125 - 27 Sep 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 1876
Abstract
Heavy oil resources are attracting considerable interest in terms of sustaining energy demand. However, the exploitation of such resources requires deeper understanding of the processes occurring during their development. Promising methods currently used for enhancing heavy oil recovery are steam injection methods, which [...] Read more.
Heavy oil resources are attracting considerable interest in terms of sustaining energy demand. However, the exploitation of such resources requires deeper understanding of the processes occurring during their development. Promising methods currently used for enhancing heavy oil recovery are steam injection methods, which are based on aquathermolysis of heavy oil at higher temperatures. Regardless of its efficiency in the field of in situ upgrading of heavy oil, this technique still suffers from energy consumption and inefficient heat transfer for deeper reservoirs. During this study, we have developed a molybdenum-based catalyst for improving the process of heavy oil upgrading at higher temperature in the presence of water. The obtained catalyst has been characterized by a set of physico-chemical methods and was then applied for heavy oil hydrothermal processing in a high-pressure reactor at 200, 250 and 300 °C. The comparative study between heavy oil hydrothermal upgrading in the presence and absence of the obtained molybdenum-based oil soluble catalysts has pointed toward its potential application for heavy oil in situ upgrading techniques. In other words, the used catalyst was able to reduce heavy oil viscosity by more than 63% at 300 °C. Moreover, our results have demonstrated the efficiency of a molybdenum-based catalyst in improving saturates and light hydrocarbon content in the upgraded oil compared to the same quantity of these fractions in the initial oil and in the non-catalytically upgraded oil at similar temperatures. This has been explained by the significant role played by the used catalyst in destructing asphaltenes and resins as shown by XRD, elemental analysis, and gas chromatography, which confirmed the presence of molybdenum sulfur particles in the reaction medium at higher temperatures, especially at 300 °C. These particles contributed to stimulating hydrodesulphurization, cracking and hydrogenation reactions by breaking down the C-heteroatom bonds and consequently by destructing sphaltenes and resins into smaller fractions, leading to higher mobility and quality of the upgraded oil. Our results add to the growing body of literature on the catalytic upgrading of heavy oil in the presence of transition metal particles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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12 pages, 2978 KiB  
Article
Development of New Amphiphilic Catalytic Steam Additives for Hydrothermal Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques
by Firdavs Aliev, Amirjon Ali Akhunov, Oybek Mirzaev and Alexey Vakhin
Catalysts 2022, 12(8), 921; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12080921 - 20 Aug 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1440
Abstract
In this paper, we propose the synthesis of green amphiphilic catalysts based on two metals: Ni and Al. The amphiphilic characteristics of the obtained catalyst were provided by alkylbenzenesulfonic acid (ABSA). The end product was thoroughly characterized by the FTIR analysis method. The [...] Read more.
In this paper, we propose the synthesis of green amphiphilic catalysts based on two metals: Ni and Al. The amphiphilic characteristics of the obtained catalyst were provided by alkylbenzenesulfonic acid (ABSA). The end product was thoroughly characterized by the FTIR analysis method. The efficiency of both catalysts was tested by modeling the catalytic hydrothermal upgrading of heavy-oil samples from Ashal’cha field (Russia) in a high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) reactor with a stirrer at a temperature of 250 °C. The physical and chemical properties of the heavy oils and their fractions were studied before and after the catalytic hydrothermal upgrading by analytical procedures such as SARA analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, GC–MS, elemental analysis, gas chromatography, etc. The results showed that both catalysts had a different influence on the viscosity-reduction degree. It was revealed that the contribution of Al ABSA to the viscosity reduction was the highest: more than 80% in contrast to the initial crude oil sample. The Al-based catalyst showed the best activity in hydrogenation and decarbonization, and hence the H/C ratio of the upgraded oil was at a maximum in the presence of Al ABSA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Catalysis in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Prospects and Challenges)
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