Flow visualization of heavy oil in supercritical water atmosphere by neutron radiography

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14454
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Properties in chemical engineering process/Transfer operation/Unit operation
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Tsukada Takao 東北大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (10171969)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 高見 誠一 名古屋大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (40311550) ; 竹中 信幸 神戸大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (50171658) ; 齊藤 泰司 京都大学, 原子炉実験所, 教授 (40283684) ; 杉本 勝美 神戸大学, 先端融合研究環, 助教 (40420468)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KUBO MASAKI 東北大学, 大学院工学研究科, 准教授 (50323069)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 超重質油 / 超臨界水改質 / 中性子ラジオグラフィ / 充填層型反応器 / 流動挙動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

For a packed bed reactor, which consists of a 1/2-inch stainless steel tube filled with alumina particles having the diameter of 3 mm, the flow behavior of heavy oil in the reactor under the atmosphere of nitrogen gas or supercritical water was observed by neutron radiography. In the heavy oil/nitrogen gas system, the effect of reactor temperature on the flow behavior at atmospheric pressure was clarified. Particularly, the flow channeling was observed in the reactor at a relatively high temperature. In the heavy oil/supercritical water system, the effect of flow rate of heavy oil on the flow behavior was investigated at 400℃ and 25 MPa. Through this work, it was revealed that neutron radiography is a useful technique to visualize the flow behavior of heavy oil in a packed bed reactor, whose wall was made of metal, at high temperature and high pressure.

Free Research Field

化学工学