Upgrading of heavy fuel oil using microwave radiation in an innovative way assisted with graphene nano-catalysts.

Treatment of heavy fuel oil (HFO) for using as a fuel focuses on environmental issues, economic reasons and renewable resources. Therefore, the current work aims to design and implement an innovative pilot plant to reduce viscosity of the HFO that characterized by the high viscosity and low calorific value and used as a fuel for generating electricity. The experimental system consists mainly of a 700-watt microwave device utilized in an innovative way to generate electromagnetic radiation in the HFO treatment. A thermocouple (Type K) inside the device was wrapped with a material that reflects the radiation to measure liquid fuel temperatures at specific time intervals while an integrated control system was used to control the sample temperature and time required for processing. Graphene was utilized as an effective catalyst at different concentrations (0, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 mg/L) for the HFO cracking process using microwave radiation to show its effect on the total amount of energy absorbed by the HFO sample. Fuel viscosity measurements were conducted at initial (105 centistoke) and after treatment at different periods using a viscometer while a water bath specially designed to keep the temperature during viscosity measurements. The results proved the efficiency of the innovative microwave method in reducing the viscosity of the HFO to 87.3 centistokes after 10 min of the treatment period at 50^oC. The experimental results proved that the most effective concentration of graphene was 1 mg/L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]