NOVELTY - A device (100) comprises a container (10) having a circumvolving outer wall (14) that allows passage of a preselected quantity of a material within a passageway defined by the container, in which the passageway is free from obstruction; at least one ultrasonic energy transmitting device (20) connected to and circumvolving the outer wall outside of the container; where ultrasonic energy transmitting device transmits ultrasonic energy having preselected characteristics to the material within the container.    USE - For treating a material i.e. for heating, performing cavitation, refining, preventing the accumulation of deposits within a conduit and reducing the viscosity of materials (claimed); useful for upstream and downstream petroleum processing of crude oil, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, biomass-to-fuel conversion, waste water treatment, performing physical alterations such as heating and mixing for flow assurance, and performing chemical alterations e.g. for enhanced chemical reactivity and catalysis.    ADVANTAGE - The device provides rapid and efficient heating of the material i.e. has the ability to reduce crude oil viscosity for easier extraction. The ultrasonic vibrational energy provided by the device can mitigate accumulation of deposits on the inner walls and diameters of pipes (e.g. within the volume or string of the piezoelectric transducers) that leads to pipe fouling and increases maintenance. The device has the ability to keep water and oil in a desired colloidal suspension that prevents other compounds (e.g. asphaltenes) from forming pipe-fouling deposits that do not respond positively to heat. Thus the ultrasonic volumetric processing of the device increases crude oil production, decreases maintenance costs and increases overall profitability of industrial oil wells. Transmission of ultrasonic energy to the material is accomplished without interference with the flow of materials through the walled conduit. The device allows noninvasive, focused, high intensity ultrasonic processing of relatively large volumes of materials. The device can be utilized at different sub-harmonic and ultra-harmonic frequencies. The device allows for multiple modes (e.g. hoop and length modes) to be used simultaneously (despite different piezoelectric frequency constants for each mode) by cutting the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) rings so that selected dimensions (e.g. mean diameter and length) are acoustically the same, thus providing an ability to focus ultrasonic energy into a cylindrical tube (e.g. pipe) and heat the contents e.g. at the center axis of a pipe, with minimal loss of energy to the surrounding environment; ability to ultrasonically alter physical properties (e.g. viscosity) of a fluid via heating or shearing; ability to ultrasonically mix fluid in a tube or pipe to keep multiphase fluids (e.g. oil, gas, water) in a mixed state to prevent precipitation of deposits (e.g. asphaltenes) from crude oil; ability to ultrasonically cavitate a fluid to achieve chemical bond cleavage, radical formation (e.g. enhanced chemical reactivity and enhanced catalysis), or other chemical alterations; ability to ultrasonically repel pipe fouling deposits, such as asphaltenes in the crude oil industry and other deposits that do not respond positively to heat; and ability to separate emulsions into separate phases at low temperatures.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows perspective view of the device.    Walled container (10)    Outer wall (14)    First end of device (18)    Second end of device (19)    Ultrasonic transmitting device (20)    Device. (100)