• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2011

Inorganic and organic geochemical characteristics of Devonian bitumen carbonates in Alberta were studied using two drilling cores, Saleski 03-34-88-20w4 and Saleski 08-01-88-20w4, taken from the Core Research Center of Canada. The results of elements analyses showed high Total Inorganic Carbon, low Total Nitrogen and Total Sulfur, and Rock-Eval pyrolysis showed double $CO_2$ peaks in the oxidation part. These mean that the Devonian bitumen carbonates are mainly composed of dolomite formed by diagenesis, and its crystal texture is dominantly subhedral to anhedral but often euhedral. Bitumen contents were 3.6~19.0% in Saleski 3-34-88-20w4 and 5.0~16.4% in Saleski 08-01-88-20w4, respectively. As samples color become dark, bitumen and Total Organic Carbon contents are generally increasing in two cores. The results of biomarker analyses showed that the contents of resins and asphaltenes were 5~28% higher than those of saturated hydrocarbon, interring that the bitumen has been heavily biodegradated. According to the results of carbon isotope analyses in each component of bitumen, asphaltenes had highest values and the others had constant values. However, their values were varied in the range of normal crude oil (-18~-30‰).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2016

It has been estimated that the Earth has nearly 1.688 trillion barrels of crude oil, which will last 53.3 years at current extraction rates. The organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) group forecasted that the oil prices will not jump to triple-digit territory within a decade, but it can quickly increase as the political issue for reducing oil production appears. With the potential of serious shortage of conventional hydrocarbon resources, the heavy oil, one of unconventional hydrocarbon resources including oil sand and natural bitumen has attracted worldwide interest. The heavy oil contains heavy hydrocarbon compounds, commonly called as resins and asphaltenes, with long carbon chains more than sixty carbon atoms. The high content of heavier fraction corresponds with the high molecular weight, viscosity, and boiling point. Physicochemical properties of residues from vacuum distillation of conventional oil, referred to as vacuum residues (VR) were similar to those of heavy oil. For the development of heavy oil reserves, reducing the heavy oil viscosity is the most important. In this article, commercially employed aquathermolysis processes and their application to VR upgrading are discussed. VR contains transition metals such as Ni and V, but these metals should be eliminated in advance for further refining. Recent studies on demetallization technologies for VR are also reviewed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.467-472
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• 2017

In this study, the reforming reaction of vacuum residue (VR) was carried out using aquathermolysis reaction. VR showed a prone to decrease the amount of resins and asphaltenes in the constituents, and to increase saturates and aromatics when reacting with steam at 30 bar and above $300^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. This tendency became more evident when the amount of steam used was excessive than the amount of VR. When the aquathermolysis reaction was performed at $300^{\circ}C$ and 30 bar for 48 h, the VR composition was changed from the initial state (S/A/R/A = 7.3%/43.7%/25.6%/23.5%) to final state (S/A/R/A = 6.8%/57%/12.2%/24.0%), and the contents of the resins decreased by 13% and the aromatic compounds increased by 13%. The viscosity decreased from 880,000 cp to 290,000 cp by 68%. When 10% of decalin, which is easy to provide hydrogen, was added, the viscosity decreased by 68% in 24 h. The VR composition showed a reduction in the contents of resins and asphaltenes from 49% to 17% from the initial state (S/A/R/A = 7.3%/43.7%/25.6%/23.5%) to the final state (S/A/R/A = 4.5%/63.5%/12.5%/20.0%), and the content of aromatics was maximized to 63.5%. The gas layer formed by the aquathermolysis reaction in the reactor chamber was collected and analyzed by GC-MS spectroscopy. As a result, various hydrocarbon compounds such as ethylbenzene, octane and dimethylbenzene were detected.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2010

In this study, fluidized-bed pyrolysis has been conducted in order to recover the bitumen contained in the oil sand. Canada Alberta oil sand contains 11.9% of bitumen and the bitumen-derived heavy oil produced in fluidizedbed tends to be upgraded relative to the bitumen. The continuous operation has been performed using $N_2$ as a fluidization gas at 1 atm and $500^{\circ}C$ in a reactor of 170 cm height. The results showed 87.76% of bitumen conversion, where liquid products are 74.45% and gas products are 13.31%. $H_2$, $O_2$, CO, $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and NO and $C_1{\sim}C_4$ hydrocarbons in the gas products were analyzed by on-line gas analyzer and gas chromatography, respectively. The pyrolysis oil was analyzed by using proximate analysis, heavy metal analysis, SIMDIS, asphaltenes, and heating value. By SIMDIS analysis, naphtha was 11.50%, middle distillation was 44.83% and heavy oil was 43.66%. It was obvious that the pyrolysis oil was upgraded compared with bitumens.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.592-599
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• 2008

Oil sands had not received enough attention due to high production cost. However, as oil price significantly increases, oil sands are receiving more and more interest as unconventional crude oil. The value and applicability of oil sands can be enhanced by upgrading oil sands bitumen to produce synthetic crude oil (SCO). This study analyzed 213 oil sands upgrading patents applied between 1969 and 2006 in US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and Korea. The upgrading technologies could be classified into 9 detailed technologies; hydrocracking, coking, thermal cracking, deasphalting, supercritical technology, bio-technology, hydrotreating, gasification, and others. The number of patents applied for oil sands upgrading increased after 1970, reached a maximum in the early 1980, and slowly increases again in recent years. Korea has a lack of technologies for oil sands. Therefore, the technologies for oil sands production and application, specially, upgrading technologies based on accumulated oil refinery technologies need to be developed to increase self-development ratio of energy resource.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.391-397
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• 2012

The depletion of conventional oil reserves and the increasing energy need in developing countries such as China and India result in exceeding oil demand over supply. As a solution of the problem, the efficient utilization of heavy oil has been receiving more and more interest. In order to utilize heavy oil, upgrading processes are required. Among the upgrading processes, thermal decomposition is thought to be relatively simple and economical. In this study, to understand basic characteristics of thermal decomposition of heavy oil, we conducted pyrolysis experiments of deasphalted oil (DAO) produced by a solvent deasphalting process. DAO is a mixture of many components and consists mainly of materials of carbon number 20~40. For the comparison with results of DAO pyrolysis, additional pyrolysis experiments with single materials of carbon number 30 ($C_{30}H_{62}$, $C_{30}H_{58}O_4S$, $C_{30}H_{63}O_3P$) were conducted. Pyrolysis experiments were carried out non-isothermally with variation of heating rate (10, 50, $100^{\circ}C$/min) in a thermogravimetric analyzer. Average pyrolysis activation energy determined by using Arrhenius method, Ingraham and Marrier method, and Coats and Redfern method was 72~99 kJ/mol. In the activation energy calculated by Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method, DAO had wider variation than other single materials.