Microwave treatment in oil refining

In this paper, we discuss the potential of using microwave techniques in the refinement of heavy fraction of petroleums such as bunker oil. After discussing the fundamental issues associated with conversion of microwave energy into heat, we present measurements of the dielectric properties of heavy oils at 2.45 GHz using a highly sensitive resonant cavity method, and also over a broader frequency range (100 MHz to 8 GHz) using a coaxial probe technique. We find that the dielectric loss is very small even in these heavy oils, but still may be sufficiently large to provide efficient conversion of microwave energy into heat on untreated samples, and could be massively enhanced by means of a microwave-absorbing additive (e.g., carbon black). We conclude by discussing the design of a suitable microwave actuator for heavy oil cracking within a flow process.