Artificial weathering of Angolan crude and a Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) was performed by evaporation and photooxidation. The aliphatic, aromatic, polar and asphaltene fractions of the fresh and weathered oils were isolated. The toxicity of the water accommodated fraction or an oil/fraction dissolved in DMSO was assessed using the sea urchin embryo test. Photooxidation was observed to decrease the aro...

BACKGROUND Biodegradation is a cheap and environmentally friendly process that could breakdown and utilizes heavy crude oil (HCO) resources. Numerous bacteria are able to grow using hydrocarbons as a carbon source; however, bacteria that are able to grow using HCO hydrocarbons are limited. In this study, HCO degrading bacteria were isolated from an Omani heavy crude oil field. They were then id...

Microorganisms possess enormous highly specific metabolic activities, which enable them to utilize and transform nearly every known chemical class present in crude oil. In this context, one of the most studied biocatalytic processes is the biodesulfurization (BDS) of thiophenic sulfur-containing compounds such as benzothiophene (BT) and dibenzothiophene (DBT) in crude oils and refinery streams....

Heavy and extra heavy crude oils are forming tremendous part of world crudes (about 40%). There are some problems limiting accessibility as a galore hydrocarbon source. One of limiting process is transportation which consumes very huge amount of energy due to their high viscosity. So, if there were a simple, stable, practicable in each situation and environmental friendly solution, these hydroc...

We present an experimental study on the adsorption behaviour of Intan-100, a nonionic surfactant, at the bitumen/water interface when the density difference between the two phases is increased by diluting the crude oil with 10% Xylene by weight or using heavy water (Deuterium Oxide) as the aqueous phase. Their equilibrium interfacial tension, surface excess and critical micelle concentration of...

We present a coherent and unified group of general explanations for the various phase transitions, which may occur in the seven naturally occurring petroleum fluids with emphasis on their heavy organics. The seven petroleum fluids include, in the order of their fluidity, natural gas, near-critical gas-condensate, light crude, intermediate crude, heavy oil, tar sand and oil shale. At first the n...

Crude oil is not a specific single mineral substance. It is often called petroleum hydrocarbon because of its predominant make up of carbon and hydrogen, though it sometimes contains other elements1. There are many types of crude oil having widely different properties. Such variability are related to their behaviour and even degradation on spillage. Crude oil can however be divided into two: he...

The present work aims to investigate the effects of the addition of waste cooking oil (WCO) on heavy crude oil biodegradation and microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) using Pseudomonas sp. SWP-4. Growth kinetics show Pseudomonas sp. SWP-4 had a maximum dry cell weight of 1.73 g/L and cell-surface hydrophobicity of 62.4% against n-hexadecane when degraded the crude oil with the addition of WCO...

Nonionic surfactant-stabilised oil-in-water emulsions offer a potentially useful vehicle for transporting heavy crude oils from oilfields to refineries or distribution terminals. Prior to refining, separation of the oil from the emulsion is necessary. Previous studies have suggested that heating the emulsion is sufficient for destabilisation and recovery of the oil. The present work examines th...