Hydrogen Transfer and Coking Propensity of Petroleum Residues under Thermal Processing

Abstract

Anthracene was used as a chemical probe to evaluate hydrogen donating abilities (HDAs) of two petroleum vacuum residues and their SARA fractions (i.e., saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes), and hydrogen donating kinetics of aromatics and resins were then analyzed. Also, 9,10-dihydroanthracene was used as a chemical probe to evaluate hydrogen accepting abilities of the asphaltenes of the residues. Coking propensities of both residues under thermal processing at 400 °C were evaluated by their coke induction periods. Results show that HDA of either residue proceeds to increase at first and then tends to decline under thermal processing, forming a maximum in the middle. The HDA peak value increases progressively with temperature increasing; the two residues may exhibit either different or similar HDAs at certain test conditions. When the four SARA fractions coexist in the form of a residue for further thermal processing, there exhibits synergism in HDA among the four SARA fractions. Hydrogen donatin...