Multi-scale modeling tools for coupled reaction, phase equilibrium and two-phase mixing phenomena with application to supercritical water heavy oil upgrading process

Supercritical water heavy oil upgrading, which has the potential for high distillate liquid yields with lower coke formation, is a complex process involving coupled reactions, phase equilibrium and two-phase mixing phenomena. This thesis presents the development of a range of models and tools to simulate such processes at different scales with varying levels of fidelity in describing the underlying physical phenomena. Over the past decade, a number of experiments have been performed in batch reactors to study the upgrading of various heavy oils and crude oil vacuum residua through both oil-phase pyrolysis and reaction in the presence of supercritical water (SCW). While these studies indicate that the presence of SCW can significantly affect the outcomes of the upgrading process, there remains a lack of clarity on whether thermolytic processing in the presence of SCW is indeed significantly beneficial as opposed to pure oil phase pyrolysis and if so, at what operating conditions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Raghavan, Ashwin,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ahmed F. Ghoniem.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121848