This research is a study of the in-situ upgrading of Jobo crude oil using steam, tetralin or decalin, and catalyst (Fe(acac)₃) at temperatures of 250 °C, 275 °C and 300 °C for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours using an autoclave. Viscosity, API gravity and compositional changes were investigated. We found that tetralin and decalin alone were good solvents for heavy oil recovery. Tetralin or decalin at concentrations of 9% (weight basis) could reduce the Jobo crude oil viscosity measured at 50 °C by 44±2% and 39±3%. Steam alone had some upgrading effects. It could reduce the oil viscosity by 10% after 48 hours of contact at 300°C. Tetralin, decalin or catalyst showed some upgrading effects when used together with steam and caused 5.4±4%, 4±1% and 19±3% viscosity reduction compared with corresponding pre-upgrading mixture after 48 hours of reaction at 300°C. The combination of hydrogen donor tetralin or decalin and catalyst reduced the viscosity of the mixture the most, by 56±1% and 72±1% compared with pre-upgrading mixture. It meant that hydrogen donors and catalyst had strong synergetic effects on heavy oil upgrading. We also found that 300 °C was an effective temperature for heavy oil upgrading with obvious viscosity reduction in the presence of steam, hydrogen donors and catalyst. Reaction can be considered to have reached almost equilibrium condition after 48 hours. The GC-MS analysis of the gas component showed that light hydrocarbon gases and CO₂ were generated after reaction. The viscosity reduction from decalin use is larger than that of tetralin because decalin has more hydrogen atoms per molecule than tetralin. A mechanism of transferring H (hydrogen atom) from H₂O and hydrogen donors to heavy oil, which can lead to structure and composition changes in heavy oil, is explained. The study has demonstrated that in-situ heavy oil upgrading has great potential applications in heavy and extra heavy oil recovery.

Abstract For a long time, human beings have believed that only the best of the best is what counts as quality.  This has led to a consumer mentality where as soon as a new or an upgraded version of a product comes out, everybody rushes to get it without hesitating. This has resulted in producers rushing to produce new products in order to be able to compete with the rest, and to maintain their stronghold in the market.  It has therefore become more and more difficult for us to keep up with the fast changing technology, which is steered by the need to make a quick buck (the suppliers) and the need to be in with the times (users).  The questions we are trying to answer in this document are:  Is it really necessary to upgrade or buy the new item?  What value does it add to our lives when we upgrade? Is there a significant improvement to the product that warrants us getting the newer or latest version?  Through our user study, we try to bring out a clear distinction between the different versions of the same product, that will give a clearer understanding of the idea behind the upgrade and our need to have it. Thus we want to help people to make the right decision in considering of buying a new software. The results that we got showed that the latest and the greatest is not always the best, and in some cases it might be better to just stick to the older version than getting the newer.

Radiation technology can economically overcome principal problems of heavy oil processing arising from heavy oil’s unfavorable physical and chemical properties. This technology promises to increase considerably yields of valuable and environmentally satisfying products of thermal cracking; to simplify complexity of refinery configuration; and to reduce energy expenses of thermal cracking. Objectives of the present study are: ● Evaluate heavy oil viscosities with respect to absorbed dose and effect of different solvents on the viscosity of irradiated crude oil by comparing selected physical properties of irradiated samples to a non-irradiated control group; ● Investigate effect of e-beam radiation on the yields of light fractions comparing yields of radiation-thermal cracking to yields of conventional thermal cracking. The viscosity was used as an indicator of the change in the molecular structure of hydrocarbons upon irradiation. We found that the irradiation of pure oil leads to the increase of the molecular weight calculated from the Riazi-Daubert correlation. Thus, irradiation up to 10 kGy resulted in a 1.64% increase in the molecular weight, 20 kGy ─ 4.35% and 30 kGy ─ 3.28%. It was found that if irradiated oil was stored for 17 days, its viscosity increased by 14% on average. The irradiation of samples with added organic solvent in the following weight percentages 10, 5, 2.5wt.% resulted in the increase in the viscosity by 3.3, 3.6 and 14.5%, respectively. The irradiation of the sample with added distilled water also resulted in an increase in the viscosity. This increase mainly happened because the thermal component was absent in the activation energy and hydrogen, produced from radiolysis of solvent and water molecules in mixture with crude oil, and was not consumed by hydrocarbon molecules and no reduction in molecular size occurred. Implementation of radiation to the thermal cracking increased yields of light fractions by 35wt.% on average compared to the process where no radiation was present. The last chapter of this thesis discusses a profitability of installation the hypothetical radiation-thermal visbreaking unit. The calculation of profitability was performed by a rate of return on investment (ROI) method. It showed that implementation of radiation-thermal processing resulted in an increase of ROI from 16 to 60%.

Experiments were conducted to investigate the feasibility of in situ upgrading of heavy oil by the use of an orgametallic catalyst and a hydrogen donor (tetralin). The experiments used a vertical injection cell into which a mixture of sand, water, and Jobo oil was thoroughly mixed and packed. Two types of runs were conducted: a run where the tetralin and catalyst were mixed within the mixture before packing into the cell, and the other was conducted by injecting a slug of the tetralin-catalyst solution before commencing with the steam injection. The Jobo oil used had an oil gravity of 12.4° API and a viscosity of 7800 cp at 30°C. The injection cell was placed in a vacuum jacket and set to a reservoir temperature of 50°C. Superheated steam at 273°C was then injected into the injection cell at a rate of 5.5 cc/min (cold water equivalent). The cell outlet pressure was maintained at 500 psig. Produced liquid samples were collected periodically through a series of separators. The produced oil was divided into two halves and several measurements and analyses were carried out on them. These included viscosity, density, elemental analysis and liquid composition. Experimental results indicated that tetralin alone was a worthy additive and increased recovery by 15% compared to that of pure steam. The premixed tetralincatalyst run showed improved recovery to that of pure steam by 20%. Experiments also showed that, when the tetralin-catalyst solution was injected rather than mixed, the results were equivalent to tetralin injection runs. Oil production acceleration was displayed by all the runs with tetralin and tetralin-catalyst but was more pronounced with the availability of catalyst.

Society's growing demands for energy results in rapid increase in oil consumption and motivates us to make unconventional resources conventional resources. There are enormous amounts of heavy oil reserves in the world but the lack of cost effective technologies either for extraction, transportation, or refinery upgrading hinders the development of heavy oil reserves. One of the critical problems with heavy oil and bitumen is that they require large amounts of thermal energy and expensive catalysts to upgrade. This thesis demonstrates that electron beam (E-Beam) heavy oil upgrading, which uses unique features of E-Beam irradiation, may be used to improve conventional heavy oil upgrading. E-Beam processing lowers the thermal energy requirements and could sharply reduce the investment in catalysts. The design of the facilities can be simpler and will contribute to lowering the costs of transporting and processing heavy oil and bitumen. E-Beam technology uses the high kinetic energy of fast electrons, which not only transfer their energy but also interact with hydrocarbons to break the heavy molecules with lower thermal energy. In this work, we conducted three major stages to evaluate the applicability of E-Beam for heavy oil upgrading. First, we conducted laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of E-Beam on hydrocarbons. To do so, we used a Van de Graff accelerator, which generates the high kinetic energy of electrons, and a laboratory scale apparatus to investigate extensively how radiation effects hydrocarbons. Second, we studied the energy transfer mechanism of E-Beam upgrading to optimize the process. Third, we conducted a preliminary economic analysis based on energy consumption and compared the economics of E-Beam upgrading with conventional upgrading. The results of our study are very encouraging. From the experiments we found that E-Beam effect on hydrocarbon is significant. We used less thermal energy for distillation of n-hexadecane (n-C16) and naphtha with E-Beam. The results of experiments with asphaltene indicate that E-Beam enhances the decomposition of heavy hydrocarbon molecules and improves the quality of upgraded hydrocarbon. From the study of energy transfer mechanism, we estimated heat loss, fluid movement, and radiation energy distribution during the reaction. The results of our economic evaluation show that E-Beam upgrading appears to be economically feasible in petroleum industry applications. These results indicate significant potential for the application of E-Beam technology throughout the petroleum industry, particularly near production facilities, transportation pipelines, and refining industry.

The processing of nickeliferous laterites to produce nickel metal is both complex and energy intensive. Since most laterites are found in remote regions, the capital costs for the infrastructure can exceed those for the process itself. The low temperature sulphidation of lateritic ores to produce an intermediate nickel concentrate for further processing offers a number of potential advantages, such as lower energy consumption and a relatively simple flowsheet. In this research, the sulphidation of a nickeliferous lateritic ore was investigated between the temperatures of 450-1100oC and sulphur additions of between 25-1000 kg of sulphur per tonne of ore. The experiments demonstrated that the nickel oxide within the ore can be selectively sulphidized to a nickel-iron sulphide. It was found that both the grade and the sulphidation degree largely depended upon the temperature and the sulphur additions, with temperatures above 550oC exhibiting the highest nickel sulphidation extents and grades. A DTA/TGA with mass spectrometer was used to further elucidate the nature of the phase transformations that occur upon heating of the ore, in the presence of sulphur. It was found that the Fe-Ni-S phase formed at low temperatures was submicron in nature and heating to temperatures of 1050oC-1100oC allowed for the growth of the sulphides to a d80 of up to 14 µm due to increased sulphide mobility, associated with the formation of a liquid sulphide matte with dissolved oxygen. Flotation studies conducted on 60 g samples showed that the sulphides formed respond to flotation with maximum grades of up to 6-7 wt% nickel being achieved and average grades of between 4-5 wt% nickel. Recoveries were approximately 50% on a sulphide basis and it was determined that the low nickel grades were due to the entrainment of magnetite fines. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mining Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-29 14:14:18.704

This thesis addresses the conditions of SMEs and working conditions in the Chilean agrofood sector. Especially in an economy with a high degree of trade openness as Chilean economy. The current state of debate is that is more controversial the apparent success of Chilean agrofood sector due to the existence of these fault lines. The upgrading theories are mainly narrow minded and do not consider the weakest part of the production chains. It is required accordingly, a broader look to these problems such that embodies these problems. It is a research based mainly in an approach of political economy. Within this context, this thesis explores the role of SMEs within the Chilean economy and, in particular, their participation within the Chilean economy's insertion into global agrofood production networks, with the aim of giving new insights into the debates over the role of industrial policy in developing countries (an economy based on natural resources). This research will contribute to developing recommendations for the use of public policy tools (rejuvenated industrial policy) in an effective way in relation to the development of SMEs in the agrofood sector. Also there is an urgent need for industrial policy to consider working conditions, training and the acquisition of skills in a much more explicit way, particularly in an economy that is heavily based on the exploitation of natural resources as in the Chilean case.

Nickeliferous laterite ores are currently processed using complex energy intensive flowsheets. Limited mineral upgrading can be achieved by low-cost mineral processing as the nickel is not found as a separable mineral phase but finely disseminated throughout the host goethite mineral. Whole ore extraction processes are required which result in intrinsically higher capital and operating costs. Market pressure has provided incentives to develop alternative upgrading techniques that can produce a nickel concentrate and reduce the material input to downstream processing facilities. Thermal upgrading through a selective reduction mechanism to produce a ferronickel concentrate has been studied extensively and has shown promising potential. In this research, a two stage selective reduction of nickeliferous laterite ore was investigated at 600oC and 1000 – 1100oC with varying coal and sulphur additions. Experiments showed that the limonite ore could be selectively reduced using a coal additive to a ferronickel and wustite phase. A combination of XRD and bromine/methanol diagnostic leach tests confirmed the presence of metallic nickel and iron in the calcine. Higher degrees of metallization corresponded with higher sulphur additions and growth zone temperatures. Sulphur was added to improve particle growth through the establishment of a Fe-O-S liquid phase, which was found to improve Ni recovery from 13.8% to 75.8% over the range of 0 – 4 wt% S. Ferronickel particles ranging in size from 20 – 60 microns were shown to be present but highly dispersed throughout the upgraded ore. Particle growth improved with higher growth zone temperatures and longer retention times. Magnetic separation of the calcine showed maximum upgrading of grades to 3 – 4 wt% nickel with recoveries ranging from 83.7 – 93.2%. Partial oxidation of wustite particles to magnetite caused the particles to be magnetic and resulted in recovery of unwanted iron oxides. The presence of iron oxide fines was believed to allow for rapid oxidation of wustite phase and also produce slimes that hindered physical separation of the upgraded ore. / Thesis (Master, Mining Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-29 22:34:20.417

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