The funding is to be disbursed by the Russian Science Foundation.

One of KFU’s leading research teams continues to attract interest from various stakeholders, including the national government. This particular grant is one in the string of many already won by the In-Situ Combustion Lab and its collaborators. This time, the team leader is Jorge Anchita (Mexican Petroleum Institute), one of the world’s renowned heavy oil experts; the industrial partner is Russian petroleum company Zarubezhneft.

Lead Research Associate of the In-Situ Combustion Lab Aleksei Vakhin explains, “The way from laboratory research to the manufacture of pilot batches of the catalyst and its field application has been made. These are fundamentally new reagents that increase oil recovery through catalytic intensification of chemical processes of oil conversion. Further research is required for widespread introduction into commercial practice. Within the framework of the project, it is planned to solve important problems: to study in detail the stages of the formation of the active form of the catalyst from an oil-soluble compound and to establish the mechanism of the functioning of catalytic complexes in the porous medium of the reservoir rock. This will make it possible to develop universal approaches to formulating the formulation of the catalytic composition as applied to a specific field. As shown by the results of field tests, the optimal catalyst composition depends not only on the oil composition, but also on the lithological and engineering-geological characteristics of the reservoir.”

Chief Research Associate Yuan Chengdong adds, “Our goal is to develop new technological approaches for catalytic upgrading of high-viscous and super-viscous oil in reservoir conditions by creating new catalysts and using complex experimental methods, mathematical and quantum-chemical calculations and numerical modeling. I am confident that we will be able to cope with all the difficulties, because we have a good team and a world-class laboratory.”

The grant is a good addition to the research conducted by our new World-Level Research Center in Liquid Hydrocarbons.

Source text: Larisa Busil

Photo: Alexander Kuznetsov

Translation: Yury Nurmeev