Plasma treatment of heavy oil and its model compound using high voltage AC discharge under liquid

Abstract

In this paper, the plasma treatments of heavy oil and its model compound n‐dodecane have been investigated using a high voltage discharge under liquid. The breakdown voltage for discharge ignition increased with gap distance in heavy oil and n‐dodecane. Compared with discharge in n‐dodecane, the breakdown voltage for heavy oil was lower. After plasma treatment of n‐dodecane, the gas products included H2 with a volume fraction of 38% and gas hydrocarbons with mainly acetylene. The high‐boiling fractions in liquid residue increased slightly and carbon particles with diameter 1–10 µm were formed. As discharge was carried out in heavy oil, similar gas products with higher H2 fraction were obtained, and the viscosity was enhanced. The present study demonstrates the feasibility of heavy oil conversion using high voltage AC discharge under liquid.

In‐Liquid Plasma Catalysis: Tools for Sustainable H2‐free Heavy Oils Upgrading

“…DBD reactor, on the other hands, possibly encounter difficulties in achieving uniform treatment across the entire heavy oil feedstock, leading to uneven product distributions. [44,45] Additionally, the limitations associated with the efficient transfer of the generated plasma to the liquid phase may result in reduced mass transfer efficiency, hindering the overall effectiveness of the process. Furthermore, the presence of impurities and contaminants in the heavy oil feedstock may lead to electrode fouling and decreased plasma efficiency, necessitating frequent cleaning and maintenance procedures.…”

“…Additionally, the SAD system presents challenges for catalyst distribution due to the difficulty of ensuring uniform stirring in the presence of plasma, particularly at an industrial scale, where catalyst pellet size can exceed that of fine powder used in lab‐scale experiments. DBD reactor, on the other hands, possibly encounter difficulties in achieving uniform treatment across the entire heavy oil feedstock, leading to uneven product distributions [44,45] . Additionally, the limitations associated with the efficient transfer of the generated plasma to the liquid phase may result in reduced mass transfer efficiency, hindering the overall effectiveness of the process.…”

Emerging technologies for catalytic gasification of petroleum residue derived fuels for sustainable and cleaner fuel production—An overview

“…So that new technologies are emerging to overcome these challenges, which mainly aim to increase the reactivity and/or enable a better control over the H 2 to CO ratio. Examples of such technologies include supercritical steam gasification (Timko et al, 2015;Canıaz and Erkey, 2014), use of thermal and non-thermal plasma (Liu et al, 2018;Hao et al, 2015), the application of molten catalysts and molten reaction media, application of hydrogen peroxide as oxidizing agent (Han et al, 2016(Han et al, , 2015 and co-gasification of heavy oils with other feedstock such as coal and biomass (Nemanova et al, 2014). Nevertheless, these technologies are either at a low technology readiness level (TRL), expensive or poorly understood.…”

“…The paper summarizes studies on the mechanisms of the involved reactions and discusses the effects of the operating conditions and additives on the performance of this method up to 2015. Gasification of waste by thermal plasma has also been reviewed by Liu et al (2018) and Fabry et al (2013). A brief review on the co-gasification of petroleum coke and biomass/coal has also been recently published by Wang et al (2021).…”