Chemical characterization of asphaltenes from various crude oils

Carolina Leyva, Jorge Ancheyta, César Berrueco, Marcos Millán

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Scopus citations

Abstract

The characterization of asphaltenes recovered from different crude oils is reported in the present work. The properties of the crude oils cover a wide range (API gravity: 10-33°, asphaltene content: 1.7-25.1 wt.%). Asphaltenes were precipitated in a high pressure batch reactor using n-heptane as solvent. Metal content by atomic absorption, elemental analysis, UV-fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular weight distribution by size exclusion chromatography were used as characterization techniques. The content of asphaltenic nickel, vanadium and sulfur was calculated for each crude oil. It was found that the concentration of these three species was higher in heavier crude oils. Heavier crudes also showed significantly higher asphaltene contents, which represented important fractions of the vacuum residue produced from these oils. However, the differences in asphaltene molecular weight distributions were narrower and did not show a clear trend as a function of the origin of the sample.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)734-738
Number of pages5
JournalFuel Processing Technology
Volume106
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Asphaltene characterization
  • Molecular weight distribution

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