Petroleum Radiation Processing

Radiation-thermal cracking of oil feedstock has the potential to offer a solution to many of the challenges the oil industry is facing. Radiation-induced chain cracking reactions in hydrocarbons at lowered temperatures initiated the development of improved technological approaches, combining the advantages of radiation-thermal cracking and low-temperature feedstock processing. However, researchers still face obstacles in the practical application of theory and experimental data, and the literature presents contradictions that need to be sorted out for further development of this technology.

Petroleum Radiation Processing fills an information gap, providing systematic descriptions of the fundamentals of radiation-induced cracking reactions in hydrocarbons. It analyzes the basic experiments that have brought about the rapid development of radiation technology for petroleum radiation processing during the last decades. The book provides a detailed introduction to radiation methods based on radiation-thermal and low-temperature cracking of hydrocarbons, emphasizing high-viscous oil feedstocks that are difficult to process by conventional methods—such as heavy and high-paraffinic crude oil, fuel oil, and bitumen. It helps readers understand the mechanisms and kinetics of low-temperature radiation cracking.

The book addresses the application of promising radiation methods for solving critical environmental issues, such as oil desulfurization and regeneration of used lubricants and other used oil products. Examining experimental data as well as theoretical and technical approaches, it summarizes research progress in the field of petroleum radiation processing, providing a useful reference on the theory and technology of hydrocarbon radiation processing for chemical technologists, researchers, and students.

Yuriy Alexandrovich Zaikin, Ph.D., currently serves as chief technology officer of PetroBeam Inc., Sweetwater, Tennessee, USA. PetroBeam is developing a new radiation technology for heavy oil upgrading based on his and Dr. Zaikina’s invention that proved the phenomenon of self-sustaining chain cracking reactions in liquid hydrocarbons at lowered temperatures. He has published more than 250 articles in the field of radiation physics and chemistry, petroleum radiation processing, radiation methods for the development of materials with enhanced properties, and physics of condensed matter, including detailed studies of diffusion and internal friction in irradiated solids. From 2006 to 2010, he served as an expert consultant on oil radiation processing for IAEA in Saudi Arabia.

Raissa Fuatovna Zaikina, Ph.D., currently serves as chief research scientist in PetroBeam, Inc., Sweetwater, Tennessee, USA. She received her M.S. in 1972 from Kazakh State University and her Ph.D. in physics of condensed matter in 1991 from the Institute of Physics and Technology, Almaty, Kazakhstan. She performed research and contributed to more than 100 publications and 7 patents in the field of radiation processing, studies of radiation effects in semiconductor compounds, and radiation technologies for petroleum processing. Since 1991, she has been conducting systematic research on radiation-induced conversion of petroleum and developing basic experimental approaches to radiation processing of heavy and high-paraffin oils.