A highly viscous nature of heavy oil poses challenges to transportation leading to costly operation and difficult processing. Traditional methods of upgrading unconventional hydrocarbon sources involve catalytic and thermal upgrading and these methods require high temperature and pressure. In the present study, partial upgrading of heavy hydrocarbon is studied by using cavitation and the stimulator. Cavitation is a phenomenon comprising of formation, growth and collapse of bubbles in a liquid medium. The most well-known disruptive effect of cavitation occurs during the collapse phase of bubbles. Method of inducing cavitation involves transmitting 20 kHz of ultrasound through an ultrasonic horn. A model molecule used in this study is n-hexadecane (C16). The experiments were carried out at 230 °C, atmospheric pressure and 60 min time scale. The results indicated that the conversion of n-hexadecane into R1 fraction (<C16) and R2 fraction (>C16) was 4.46% for the cavitation-assisted cracking with the stimulator. The selectivity to R1 and R2 fractions were 71% and 29%, respectively. Adding 5 vol% decalin as hydrogen donor into the cracking process yielded 9.18% conversion of n-hexadecane into R1 and R2 fractions. In addition, the selectivity to R1 and R2 fractions were 87% and 13%. This study focuses on less energy intensive process for heavy hydrocarbon by utilizing cavitation and the stimulator and how ultrasound-assisted cracking with the stimulator could be a viable alternative to treat heavy hydrocarbon at the low temperature.

重油的高粘度性质对运输提出了挑战，导致昂贵的操作和困难的加工。升级非常规烃源的传统方法涉及催化和热升级，这些方法需要高温和高压。在本研究中，通过使用空化和刺激剂来研究重质烃的部分提质。空化是一种现象，包括在液体介质中气泡的形成，生长和破裂。最众所周知的气蚀破坏作用发生在气泡的破裂阶段。引起空化的方法包括通过超声变幅杆传输20 kHz的超声。本研究中使用的模型分子为n-十六烷（C16）。实验在230°C，大气压和60分钟的时间刻度上进行。结果表明，用刺激剂进行的空化辅助裂化，正十六烷向R1馏分（<C16）和R2馏分（> C16）的转化率为4.46％。对R1和R2馏分的选择性分别为71％和29％。在裂化过程中添加5 vol％的十氢化萘作为氢供体可产生9.18％的n转化率-十六烷成R1和R2馏分。此外，对R1和R2馏分的选择性分别为87％和13％。这项研究的重点是通过利用空化和刺激器来降低重烃的能源密集型过程，以及利用刺激器进行超声辅助裂化如何成为在低温下处理重烃的可行替代方案。