Applications of Ionic Liquids in the Oil Industry: Towards A Sustainable Industry

ILs have attracted the attention of researchers in recent decades. The number of applications in which these unusual compounds show good performance has grown dramatically in the last century. This chapter presents an overview of ionic liquids, their structure, properties and general applications that have made them one of the families of chemicals to which most research efforts have been devoted. 

This chapter presents an overview of ionic liquids application for the removal of some pollutants such as sulfur, nitrogen and others that are present in considerable concentrations in fuels such as gasoline and diesel and which must be removed because they cause major environmental problems, and which can be extracted by different liquid-liquid extraction procedures using ILs.

The oil industry is the industry that generates the most carbon dioxide (CO2) worldwide, therefore the development of alternatives for the capture, use and transformation of CO2 into products of greater added value is of great interest. This chapter presents an overview of ionic liquids application for CO2 capture.

Emulsions are commonly found in oil and cause major operational problems, so emulsion breakage is a major issue in this industry. Among the alternatives for breaking emulsions is the use of de-emulsifying products and among them, some ILs with amphiphilic properties have gained an important place by demonstrating a very good efficiency as emulsion breakers in combination with other methods such as heating. 

 In the oil industry, in general, and in Mexico, in particular, the use of heavy crudes in the refining process has increased considerably. The processing of these heavy crudes implies an important technological challenge, and their transportation can sometimes be complicated. Among the alternatives for transporting this type of crude is the formation of invert emulsions in which ILs can play an important role, which is discussed in this chapter. 

The oil industry presents corrosion problems from crude oil extraction and transportation to the refining process, making it a highly demanding industry in terms of corrosion inhibitors. This chapter reviews the concepts related to the topic of corrosion and reviews the advances in the use of ILs to mitigate corrosion in different corrosive environments typical of this industry.

The extraction of crude oil in deep waters represents a major technological challenge. One of the most common problems in these oil and gas extraction conditions is the formation of gas hydrates that can cause plugging and hinder the transportation of crude oil. For this reason, great efforts have been made in the development of hydrate inhibitors, among which ILs have shown to be a very promising alternative. In this chapter, the development and evaluation of ILs as hydrate inhibitors are discussed. 

The application of chemical products, particularly polymeric products, is undoubtedly one of the most helpful and effective alternatives for EOR processes and changes in oil mobility. Appropriate chemical products provide more favorable interfacial conditions to the flow of petroleum, reducing the interfacial tensions between water and oil, and therefore, increasing the miscibility of these two compounds, and allowing the oil to flow in the porous medium. In this context, ionic compounds and particularly ILs are proving to be important auxiliaries in the performance of chemicals used for this application, particularly in extreme conditions of temperature and salinity. 

Alkylate gasoline is one of the most valuable products produced in the crude oil refining process. This product is one of the main contributors to the gasoline pool because it has a high-octane rating and a low content of contaminants such as sulfur, nitrogen, and aromatic compounds. This chapter reviews the advances in the use of ILs as catalysts for the isobutene/butene reaction with the objective of developing a less hazardous and more sustainable process to obtain alkylate gasoline.

In this chapter, we will discuss some other applications that are of great importance in the oil industry and in which ILs have played an important role; however, the IMP has not yet ventured into these topics, at least not with the use of ILs. The topics discussed in this chapter are the separation of light hydrocarbons, separation and extraction of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, extraction of bitumen from oil sand, and application of ILs in shale stabilization processes.