Novel catalysts comprising nickel oxide nanoparticles supported on alumina nanoparticles, methods of their manufacture, heavy oil compositions contacted by these nanocatalysts and methods of their use are disclosed. The novel nanocatalysts are useful, inter alia, in the upgrading of heavy oil fractions or as aids in oil recovery from steam-assisted well reservoirs.

Novel catalysts comprising nickel oxide nanoparticles supported on alumina nanoparticles, methods of their manufacture, heavy oil compositions contacted by these nanocatalysts and methods of their use are disclosed. The novel nanocatalysts are useful, inter alia, in the upgrading of heavy oil fractions or as aids in oil recovery from well reservoirs.

Systems and methods that include providing, e.g., obtaining or preparing, a material that includes a hydrocarbon carried by an inorganic substrate, and exposing the material to a plurality of energetic particles, such as accelerated charged particles, such as electrons or ions.

Oil sands may be surface mined and transported to a treatment area or may be treated directly by means of an in situ process of oil sand deposits that are located too deep for strip mining. A bitumen recovery process may be used to extract bitumen from oil sands. Specifically, the bitumen recover process involves a step of treating oil sands with a propylene oxide capped glycol ether described by the structure:
RO(C.sub.2H.sub.4O).sub.nCH.sub.2CH(CH.sub.3)OH
wherein R is a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl, phenyl, alkyl phenyl group and n is 1 to 10.

Methods for regenerating a spent catalyst are disclosed. Such methods may employ a step of chlorinating the spent catalyst in the gas phase, followed by decoking the chlorinated spent catalyst, and then fluorinating the de-coked catalyst in a fluorine-containing solution of a fluorine-containing compound.

Novel catalysts comprising nickel oxide nanoparticles supported on alumina nanoparticles, methods of their manufacture, heavy oil compositions contacted by these nanocatalysts and methods of their use are disclosed. The novel nanocatalysts are useful, inter alia, in the upgrading of heavy oil fractions or as aids in oil recovery from steam-assisted well reservoirs.

The present invention relates to a slurry hydroconversion process of a heavy oil feedstock (101) comprising: (a) preparing a conditioned feedstock (103) by mixing said feedstock with a catalyst precursor formulation (104) so that a colloidal or molecular catalyst is formed when it reacts with sulfur, said catalyst precursor formulation (104) comprising a catalyst precursor composition (105) comprising Mo, an organic additive (102) comprising a carboxylic acid function and/or an ester function and/or an acid anhydride function, and a molar ratio organic additive (102)/Mo from formulation (4) ranging between 0.1:1 and 20:1; (b) heating said conditioned feedstock; (c) introducing the heated conditioned feedstock (106) into at least one slurry bed reactor and operating said reactor in the presence of hydrogen and at hydroconversion conditions to produce an upgraded material (107), the colloidal or molecular catalyst being formed during step (b) and/or (c).

A treatment method for remediating various contaminants including H.sub.2S, CO.sub.2, NH.sub.3 and other contaminants contained in fluids being extracted from the earth comprises steps of: preparing an aqueous based treatment composition containing water and collectively 35-55 weight percent of one or more hydroxide compounds; injecting a dosage amount of the treatment composition into contaminated fluids located in a subterranean deposit under the earth's surface such that the treatment composition mixes with the fluids deep under the earth's surface; and extracting a mixture of the contaminated fluids and the treatment composition through a well such that the treatment compositions remediates contaminants in the fluids as the mixture passes through the well to the earth's surface, wherein a dosage amount of the treatment composition may be 0.010 to 10.0 ml of the aqueous based treatment composition/liter of the contaminated fluids being extracted from the subterranean deposit.

Systems and methods that include providing, e.g., obtaining or preparing, a material that includes a hydrocarbon carried by an inorganic substrate, and exposing the material to a plurality of energetic particles, such as accelerated charged particles, such as electrons or ions.

Novel catalysts comprising nickel oxide nanoparticles supported on alumina nanoparticles, methods of their manufacture, heavy oil compositions contacted by these nanocatalysts and methods of their use are disclosed. The novel nanocatalysts are useful, inter alia, in the upgrading of heavy oil fractions or as aids in oil recovery from well reservoirs or downstream processing.