Influence of Temperature on the Product Distribution during the Fast Pyrolysis of Indonesian Oil Sands and the Relationships of the Products to the Oil Sand Organic Structure

Abstract

The influence of temperature on the product distributions of oil sand fast pyrolysis was studied by a combined pyrolyzer-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) technique. Characteristics of the organic structure in bitumen deduced from the pyrolytic products and given by 1H/13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry were compared as well. The oil sand sample was pyrolyzed at temperatures from 300 to 650 °C in intervals of 50 °C in an inert atmosphere (helium gas), and more than 200 types of compounds were detected, including carbon dioxide, aliphatics (alkanes, cycloalkanes, olefins, dialkenes, cycloolefins), aromatics (alkyl benzenes, alkyl naphthalenes, alkyl indenes), oxygen-containing compounds, and sulfur-containing compounds. From the evolution of the product yields, it was clearly observed that temperature affected both the primary and secondary reactions during fast pyrolysis. Major thermal cracking took place until about 400 °C, as evidenced by a dramatic increase in product speci...