Ionic Liquid: A Promising Material for Petroleum Production and Processing

Abstract

Ionic liquids can be utilized in petroleum science. However, significant attention has been paid to the utilization of ionic liquids in petroleum science by researchers. In this work, the recent development of the utilization of ionic liquids in petroleum science is introduced. First of all, ionic liquids can be utilized as an additive in the oil & gas industry, such as a surfactant, corrosion inhibitor, demulsifier, and dispersant. In addition, ionic liquids can be utilized in the separation process of oil & gas processing. For example, ionic liquids can be utilized to remove naphthenic acids from oils, extract toluene from alkanes, dissolution of asphaltene in oils, extract phenol from model oil, and separate oil mixtures in a combination of membranes. Ionic liquids can also be utilized in novel technology development for enhanced oil recovery, and oil field scale control process. Moreover, utilization of ionic liquids in gasoline desulfurization process is important and crucial, which is greener, lower cost, and safer compared with the traditional processing technology. Furthermore, ionic liquids can be utilized as novel solvents to form micro-emulsion. Some ionic liquids have task-specific functional groups, which can reduce the cost and improve the separation efficiency. The utilization of ionic liquids in the catalysis process of the oil & gas industry is also introduced in this work. In the end, the utilization of ionic liquids in the oil sand treatment process and asphaltene precipitation inhibition process is discussed. This work will benefit the novel environmentally friendly technology development using ionic liquids for oil & gas production and processing.