Patent ID: 8894273

Claim:
A process for modification of petroleum oil, comprising the steps of: combining petroleum oil with a catalyst and water, hydrogen, ozone, oxygen, nitrogen, and/or carbon dioxide to create a fluidic mixture; pumping the fluidic mixture through contractions in each of a plurality of localized zones in a flowpath in a multi-stage, flow-through, hydrodynamic cavitation device having a single inlet and a single outlet, wherein each of the plurality of localized zones corresponds to a separate stage; generating areas of reduced fluid pressure in the fluidic mixture as it is pumped through the contractions in each of the plurality of localized zones in the flowpath, such contractions resulting in increased flow velocity which causes a reduction in fluid pressure; creating cavitational vapor bubbles of volatile components in the fluidic mixture resulting from the areas of reduced fluid pressure, wherein the volatile components form vapors at the reduced fluid pressure; collapsing the cavitational vapor bubbles as the fluidic mixture leaves each of the plurality of localized zones exposing components of the fluidic mixture to sudden, localized increases in temperature and pressure; mixing vapors of the volatile components with adjacent layers of less volatile components in a condensed fluidic mixture upon collapse of the cavitational vapor bubbles; and inducing chemical reactions between the vapors of the volatile components and the less volatile components to promote molecular rearrangement of the components of the fluidic mixture and modify rheological parameters of the petroleum oil.