Abstract
Co-processing of heavy oil and a low-grade iron ore which contains a large amount of FeO(OH) is proposed to produce both light oil and a raw material for iron making called iron ore/carbon composite (IOC). When the mixture of the heavy oil, an oil sand bitumen’s vacuum tower bottom (VR) in this work, and the low-grade iron ore was heated up to 300°C, the VR filled up the layered 0.8 nm-wide pore space which was formed by the dehydration of FeO(OH). When the mixture was further heated over 400°C, the VR in the pore space was catalytically cracked to produce light oil in high yield. The resulting low-grade iron ore consisting of Fe2O3 and containing high-molecular-weight compounds, coke, in the pore space is expected to be utilized as a high quality IOC, as reported in our previous paper.
