INFLUENCE OF POLAR SOLVENTS ON THE ENHANCEMENT OF LIGHT-ENDS IN HEAVY CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION

Abstract

Crude oil ‘micelle’ can be dispersed into fuels, oil and resin/asphalthene components using some hydrocarbon solvents. This can be adapted towards influencing/enhancing its product slates during the processing of crude oils. This research was carried out to investigate the effect of polar solvents (ethanol and acetone) in the enhancement of the light-ends in the True Boiling Point (TBP) distillation of Venezuela heavy crude oil. The oil was procured from Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Nigeria Ltd, Kaduna, Nigeria. Different concentrations of ethanol with crude oil blends were prepared using 2.5 wt.%, 5 wt.%, 7.5 wt.%, and 10 wt.%. Their spectro photometric analysis was carried out to determine their micelle diameter. The graphs of the micelle diameter of the blends against the various concentrations of the ethanol were plotted from which the minimum and maximum obtained, were 26.322×10 -9 m and 28.312×10 -9 m corresponding to 2.5 wt.% and 5 wt.% ethanol concentrations respectively. The same procedure was also repeated for acetone and the values for the minimum and maximum were 24.31×10 -9 m and 31.798×10 -9 m respectively. These concentrations were blended with 400g of the oil and their TBP distillations were carried out. From the data generated, 2.5% and 5% ethanol were respectively found to enhance the light ends recovery by 6.133% and 9.008% for fractions between IBP-360 o C for ethanol and 9.500% and 11.693 % for 5% and 2.5% acetone concentration. The authors are of the opinion that this work can be adapted to enhance light ends recovery in the atmospheric/vacuum distillation units (ADU/VDU) of the Crude Oil Refineries. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v35i4.24