Natural zeolite bitumen cracking and upgrading

The oilsands of North America may well represent the world’s largest available petroleum reserves. We investigated the interaction of a number of catalysts with unprocessed oilsands in sealed reactors at 400 °C. The viscosity of bitumen is much higher than conventional crude oil, requiring dilution with solvents to pipeline it from the production fields. Its levels of sulfur, nitrogen and metals (especially nickel and vanadium) are also much higher than conventional crude. The catalytic and adsorptive properties of the modified mineral zeolite chabazite were found to reduce viscosity dramatically and remove much of the metals, nitrogen and sulfur at 400 °C. Simple, economical, disposable, in-field bitumen upgrading materials, such as modified natural zeolites, could improve bitumen production by lowering or eliminating the need for expensive solvents during pipelining and improving the quality of the product shipped from the field.