Ultrasonido aplicado en la reducción de viscosidad del crudo pesado

Resumen

La reducción de la viscosidad del crudo pesado mediante técnicas de mejoramiento es crucial para mantener la demanda de petróleo, que crece a una tasa anual de 1.8 %. El fenómeno de la cavitación acústica ocurre cuando el ultrasonido es aplicado en el tratamiento de crudos pesados. Esta es una tecnología emergente que se está desarrollando para mejorar las propiedades físicas y químicas de crudos altamente viscosos, lo cual facilita el manejo, aumenta la proporción de facciones livianas y mejora su precio en el mercado. Teniendo en cuenta que aún no opera a escala industrial, se justifica una revisión de literatura de los avances de la tecnología de cavitación acústica con ultrasonido para mejoramiento de crudo pesado, con el fin de contribuir con el desarrollo de su aplicación industrial mediante la identificación de nuevos enfoques y lineamientos de investigación en ingeniería y ciencias. El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar el avance de la tecnología y describir los experimentos realizados por diversos autores. Para ello, se realizó una revisión bibliográfica de los documentos que han sido publicados desde 1970 hasta 2020, dichos documentos se recopilaron mediante una búsqueda sistemática en bases de datos académicas. Como resultado de esta revisión, se encontraron algunos vacíos conceptuales y carencias en fundamentación fenomenológica, que explican las dificultades actuales para implementar tests experimentales y diseñar el proceso a escalas mayores. Estas carencias limitan la calidad y repetitividad en los resultados. También se identificó la necesidad de concentrar los esfuerzos en experimentación sistemática que cumpla con las fases de laboratorio y planta piloto, aspectos esenciales para llevar estas tecnologías a escala industrial.

Palabras clave

asfaltenos, cavitación acústica, crudo pesado, mejoramiento de crudo, petróleo, sonoquímica, ultrasonido

Biografía del autor/a

David Roberto Olaya-Escobar, Ph. D.

Roles: Conceptualización, Escritura – Borrador original, Investigación.

Leonardo Augusto Quintana-Jiménez, Ph. D.

Roles: Escritura – Revisión & Edición, Supervisión.

Edgar Emir González-Jiménez, Ph. D.

Roles: Escritura – Revisión & Edición, Validación.

Erika Sofia Olaya-Escobar, Ph. D.

Roles: Escritura – Revisión & Edición, Metodología.

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