TY - JOUR
T1 - Adsorption of asphaltenes from heavy oil onto in situ prepared NiO nanoparticles
AU - Abu Tarboush, Belal J.
AU - Husein, Maen M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Alberta Ingenuity Centre for In Situ Energy (AICISE) for the financial support, and Dr. Francisco Lopez and Dr. Azfar Hassan for helping in the FTIR, TGA, the density and the viscosity measurements.
PY - 2012/7/15
Y1 - 2012/7/15
N2 - Removal of asphaltenes from heavy oil improves the quality of oil and makes it easier to process. To this end, Nassar et al. [1] recently showed that NiO nanoparticles have high affinity toward asphaltene adsorption. This investigation, however, involved toluene model solutions and commercially available nanoparticles. In the current work, we show that NiO nanoparticles prepared in situ within heavy oil display much higher affinity toward asphaltenes adsorption, and uptake in the order of 2.8. g asphaltene/g nanoparticles is reported. This uptake way exceeds asphaltene adsorption onto conventional porous adsorbents and commercial nanoparticles from toluene model solutions. Nanoparticle preparation followed a method developed by our group [2], and XRD, EDX, and TEM analyses confirmed the formation of NiO nanoparticles of 12 ± 5. nm mean diameter. Kinetic experiments showed that, while equilibrium could be achieved in less than 2. h for both in situ prepared and commercial NiO particles, much higher adsorption took place onto the in situ prepared ones, owing to their better dispersion. Contrary to literature findings on adsorption from model solutions onto nanoparticles, surface coverage calculations revealed multilayer adsorption.
AB - Removal of asphaltenes from heavy oil improves the quality of oil and makes it easier to process. To this end, Nassar et al. [1] recently showed that NiO nanoparticles have high affinity toward asphaltene adsorption. This investigation, however, involved toluene model solutions and commercially available nanoparticles. In the current work, we show that NiO nanoparticles prepared in situ within heavy oil display much higher affinity toward asphaltenes adsorption, and uptake in the order of 2.8. g asphaltene/g nanoparticles is reported. This uptake way exceeds asphaltene adsorption onto conventional porous adsorbents and commercial nanoparticles from toluene model solutions. Nanoparticle preparation followed a method developed by our group [2], and XRD, EDX, and TEM analyses confirmed the formation of NiO nanoparticles of 12 ± 5. nm mean diameter. Kinetic experiments showed that, while equilibrium could be achieved in less than 2. h for both in situ prepared and commercial NiO particles, much higher adsorption took place onto the in situ prepared ones, owing to their better dispersion. Contrary to literature findings on adsorption from model solutions onto nanoparticles, surface coverage calculations revealed multilayer adsorption.
KW - Adsorption
KW - Asphaltenes
KW - Heavy oil
KW - Nanoparticle
KW - NiO
KW - Upgrading
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcis.2012.04.016
DO - 10.1016/j.jcis.2012.04.016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84861570170
SN - 0021-9797
VL - 378
SP - 64
EP - 69
JO - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
JF - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
IS - 1
ER -