The crude oil refining process is important for the production of fuel and petrochemical products that help build developed societies. In the refining process the heavy streams of crude oil are subjected to catalytic hydroprocessing or coking to get the last available fuel. A drawback of catalytic hydrogenation is that large amounts of high pressure hydrogen are needed, but coking produces large amounts of petroleum coke as a low-value byproduct. Crude oil upgrading with supercritical water (SCW) is a technique for con- verting heavy oils into lighter hydrocarbons. This project strives to create a lumped model that describes reaction rates of compound groups in crude oil exposed to SCW. A better understanding of crude oil reactivity in the presence of SCW could lead to new refin- ing methods.

Hello, my name is Isaiah Borne and I am from Marietta, GA. My SuperUROP project is dedicated to upgrading crude oil. I have worked in Professor Green’s lab since January of this year so I am familiar with a lot of the background research. I hope to learn about the research process and figure out what reactions are happening in a complex system. I am excited that I can learn something that could impact energy production.