Adsorption Kinetics of Nickel Etioporphyrin on VTB-Asphaltene in N-Pentane Solution

Abstract

It is important to find out how to strengthen the interaction between nickel porphyrins and asphaltene in the alkane solvents of the low molecular weight for raising the removal rate of nickel in the solvent deasphalting process. Therefore, the adsorption kinetics, which describes how the nickel etioporphyrins are adsorbed on asphaltene (the vacuum residue of Canadian oil sands bitumen (VTB)) in the n-pentane solvent, are investigated. The results show that a certain amount of nickel porphyrins is absorbed on the asphaltene of VTB, which means there is a certain adsorption between asphaltene and nickel porphyrins. The adsorption rate is affected by the dosage of asphaltene, the concentration of the n-pentane solution containing nickel porphyrins and the temperature. A comparison in the four kinds of kinetic models on the overall adsorption rate shows that adsorption process can be perfectly described by the pseudo second-order equation.