Use of nano-metal particles as catalyst under electromagnetic heating for in-situ heavy oil recovery

In this paper, we investigated the effects of microwave radiation, using a 2.45 GHz emitter, on the recovery of heavy oil from a sand pack. Experiments were conducted with and without nano-size nickel catalyst being present. Heavy oil samples were heated at differing power levels until recovery of heavy oil leveled out. In all cases, the nano-nickel catalysts performed better than their microwave-only counterparts due to the increased cracking and vaporization demonstrated by Greff and Babadagli (2011) to take place in the presence of nano-size metal catalysts and microwaves.