Upgrading and Characterisation of Heavy Oils. Overseas Fellowship - The University Alberta, Canada.

Heavy oil is a generic term including heavy crudes, residues, synthetic crude oils from coal, products from shale oil and tar sand production, and similar oils. The heavy oils have properties that make them difficult to process, these being high densities , high boiling points, high molecular weights, high viscosities, and a relatively high concentration of heteroatoms. Future oil discoveries are to a larger degree predicted to be heavy oil finds. At the same time, legislation and environmental concerns i mpose regulations in petroleum product quality. EU directives 98/70/EC and 2003/17/EF dictate the upper limit of sulphur and aromatics concentration in transportation fuels. Upgrading heavy oils means reducing carbon-to-hydrogen ratio, reducing molecular weight, and removing heteroatoms. This can be achieved either by carbon rejection or hydrogen addition. Delayed Coking and Flexicoking are examples of processes in which the carbon-to-hydrogen ratio is lowered by means of carbon rejection. Any process ba sed on hydrotreating and hydrocracking belongs to the second group. As part of the project, PhD student Espen Wangen will work for six months with Professor Murray Gray, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, where the academic work in the field of hea vy oil upgrading has come very far due large resources that can be found in the country. The PhD student will be included in one of the ongoing projects of the research group of Professor Gray. A stay in a renowned international environment is an importan t part of the PhD-studies, and such a working visit is highly encouraged by the Faculty of Natural Sciences, NTNU.