Upgrading Heavy Crude Oil Potentials through Microwave Assisted Distillation

Abstract

The use of microwave heating technique has shown tremendous research interest
and potentials. As demand from oil is increasing worldwide, heavy crude oil are often
priced at a discount to lighter ones due to low proportion of low- boiling constituents (light
fractions) and high concentration of impurities which create many operational and quality
problems. This work aimed to introduce a novel for improving low- boiling fractions yield
using microwave irradiation without addition of chemicals or additives. Microwave oven
model HR-7802D was employed and a laboratory atmospheric distillation was conducted
on heavy crude oil after been irradiated with microwave for few minutes at various power
rates. Distillation results showed that, microwave heating is very effective at low- power
rates of 480 and 560Watts, which gave a higher products yield. Microwave heating is
feasible, environmentally friendly and has the potential to be used as an alternative to
conventional heating.