Integration of heavy oil upgrading via Aquaprocessing (AQP) for added conversion and stability with, precipitation or adsorption, and gasification of instable asphaltenes was investigated. This approach allows for extended heavy oil upgrading and syngas generation cycles, which would result in considerable economic advantages. Upgrading of Arab Light vacuum residue by AQP was evaluated in a continuous open tubular reactor. The experiments were conducted using a homogeneous catalytic emulsion system by dispersing alkali and transition metals catalytic particles in the oil medium. Experimental results showed more than 10% relative increase in the 540+ °C residual oil conversion with AQP when compared to conventional visbreaking at the minimum asphaltene stability limit. A study of adsorption kinetics and uptake with UV/Visible spectroscopy of oil dispersed and isolated asphaltenes over solid adsorbent was performed. The results from the adsorption experiments indicated that the asphaltenes adsorption kinetics and uptake are functions of upgrading severities.
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