Nanotechnology for Enhancing In-Situ Recovery and Upgrading of Oil and Gas Processing

This book assesses the current development and potential applications of nanoparticle technology in oil industry and explores new research directions in this frontier field. It outlines the theory and practical challenges of the nanoparticle colloidal behavior in oil matrixes and aqueous solutions, the interactions between rock and nanofluid, nanoparticles and asphaltenes, and the surface phenomena relevant to the application of this technology. The book also describes the transport behavior of nanoparticles in oil/sand media for in-situ upgrading and recovery of heavy oil. Currently, the main objectives of applying nanoscale materials in oil industry are the remediation of formation damage, the improvement of energy efficiency, the abatement of environmental footprints and the increment of recovery factors of oil reservoirs, to name a few. The book consists of 15 chapters with contributions by leading experts in the topics of fabrication methods, opportunities and challenges in the oil & gas industry, modeling and application of nanofluids in the field and environmental applications of nanoparticles. The growing demand for oil has led to the need to exploit unconventional oil resources, such as heavy and extra-heavy crude oil. However, in the current context, upgrading and recovery of heavy oil are highly energy and water intensive, which consequently results in environmental impacts. Therefore, it is necessary to search for new ideas and alternatives in the field of in-situ and ex-situ upgrading and recovery to improve current technologies and make them both environmentally sound and cost-effective. Research conducted by the authors and numerous other researchers has shown that nanoparticle technology could be successfully employed for enhancing the upgrading and recovery of heavy oil with cost-effective and environmentally friendly approaches. Examples on the applications of nanoparticles in heavy oil include the adsorption, oxidation, and gasification/cracking of asphaltenes, a problematic constituent present in heavy oils; in-situ upgrading of the Athabasca bitumen by multi-metallic in-situ prepared nanocatalysts; the inhibition of precipitation and deposition of asphaltnes; and the enhanced perdurability against asphaltene damage in oil sands porous media by injection of nanofluids; sequestration of oil from spilled by nanoparticles, cleaning up oil sand process affected water by integrating nanoparticle with conventional treatment processes, etc.

Nashaat N. Nassar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering in the University of Calgary (AB, Canada). He received his BSc in chemical engineering from An-Najah National University (Nablus, Palestine) in 2000, his MSc in chemical engineering from McGill University (QC, Canada) in 2003, and his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary in 2008. His research interests are in the areas of nanotechnology and its applications for energy and the environment, especially in heavy oil upgrading and recovery, air pollution control and wastewater treatment; polymer processing; and nanocomposites. He is also an expert in chemical engineering education, especially in process development, effluent treatment processes and process design, as he taught more than 20 different courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels. He has won a number of awards and prizes. He has given more than 40 conference presentations and delivered a number of keynote speeches at local and international levels. He is an author/coauthor of more than 45 refereed scientific journal articles and book chapters, and he is a professional member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Carrasco Marín is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Granada in Spain. He received his Bachelor and PhD degrees in Chemistry in 1984 and 1989, respectively, from the Granada University. He was a research associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the Pennsylvania State University (USA) in the 90´s. After that he has carried out different research stays at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He has worked in different research projects as principal researcher, has supervised 4 PhD thesis and published 60 scientific articles in peer-review journals and book chapters and has presented different communications at Carbon and Catalysis Conferences.

Dr. Pereira graduated as a Chemist in 1976 and obtained a doctorate in heterogeneous catalysis, both from L’Université de Poitiers, France, in 1979. He was a chemical engineering professor at the ＂Universidad de Los Andes＂ in Merida-Venezuela for seven years and a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory-University of California, Berkeley during the period Oct.1987-Dec.1990. He has since dedicated his professional and research activities to catalysts and catalytic processes development using both steam and hydrogen for heavy oils and residuals upgrading. He has also published on the Hydrogen generation from coal steam gasification and patented first on a catalyst for methane coupling, to produce Ethylene/ethane. Dr. Pereira is the author of more than 60 published articles and presentations, and more than 10 International Conferences and Seminars. He dedicated 14 years as a Research and Development Leader at a major Petroleum corporation where he co-invented and coordinated the development of the two major competitive upgrading technologies, named Aquaconversion and HDHplus. Dr. Pereira has 7 patents on the areas and processes above mentioned.

Farid B. Cortés obtained his title as a Chemical Engineer in 2004 from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Later, he graduated as a Ms. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D in 2006 and 2009, respectively. He is associate professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Universidad Nacional de Colombia since 2011. He is the author of more than 40 published articles.