(390g) Microwave-Assisted Conversion Of Heavy Oils to Light Olefins

Olefins, such as ethylene and propylene are important commodity petrochemicals useful in a variety of processes for making plastics and other chemical compounds. For many years now the primary process used for the production of the lighter olefins (ethylene and propylene) has been steam cracking of light hydrocarbons which is a highly energy intensive technology. Therefore, there is strong interest in development of more efficient and improved unconventional processing methods. The utilization of microwave irradiation for efficient chemical activation for the processing of petroleum to useful products has demonstrated that the selective and targeted dissipation of microwave energy has great potential to deliver shorter reaction times compared to conventional cracking processes driven by thermal energy.

The aim of this study is to develop new petrochemical approaches based on microwave-dielectric heating and rational designed catalsorbers based on ZSM-5 catalysts, whose duality can efficiently transform the crude oil and heavy naphtha to high-value chemicals. These innovations will be used for the selective cracking and dehydrogenation of crude oil into valuable light olefins for the petrochemical industry via new “unconventional process technologies.”