Abstract
A Canadian in situ oilsands bitumen-derived vacuum residue (VR) was subjected to supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation (SFEF) into 13 extractable fractions and an unextractable end-cut and characterized by positive- and negative-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). The results of negative-ion ESI FT-ICR MS showed that the N1 class species was the most abundant and the multifunctional group compounds, such as N1O1, N1O2, N1S1, N1S2, and N2 class species became abundant as the SFEF fraction became heavier. In positive-ion ESI mode, the relative abundance of N1 class species decreased gradually in the heavy SFEF fractions while that of multifunctional group compounds increased. The relative abundance of N4V1O1 increased dramatically in heavy fractions and the end-cut. The distributions of polar heteroatom species of VR derived from oilsands bitumen were similar with those of VR derived from the Venezuela Orinoco extra heavy oil.
Highlights
Canadian oilsands bitumen and Venezuela extra heavy oil are the world’s largest reserves and are strategically important to meet the growing demand of petroleum (Demirbas et al 2016; Zhou et al 2008). The characteristics of these two feedstocks are that they contain considerable amounts of vacuum residue (VR) and asphaltenes, as well as high concentrations of heteroatoms, such as sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and metals, which make them difficult to process in refining operation. (Chen et al 2015; Ortega et al 2015; Wei et al 2015; Yin et al 2013)
This paper provides molecular compositions of oilsands bitumen-derived VR fractions and compares with those of Venezuela extra heavy oil-derived VR
The VR was further fractionated into 13 extractable narrow fractions and an unextractable end-cut by supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation (SFEF) using pentane solvent
Summary
Canadian oilsands bitumen and Venezuela extra heavy oil are the world’s largest reserves and are strategically important to meet the growing demand of petroleum (Demirbas et al 2016; Zhou et al 2008) The characteristics of these two feedstocks are that they contain considerable amounts of vacuum residue (VR) and asphaltenes, as well as high concentrations of heteroatoms, such as sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and metals, which make them difficult to process in refining operation. A recent study showed that if the asphaltenes were selectively removed from the VR, the deasphalted residue can be processed in conventional packed hydroprocessing units (Yuan et al 2016; Zachariah and de Klerk 2017) This will reduce energy intensity of residue processing by eliminating the use of less energy efficient and costly coking and ebullated-bed reactor systems for feedstock pretreatment (Cheng et al 2009; Morimoto et al 2010; Rose et al 2001). A better understanding of the chemistry of heavy petroleum fractions will allow refiners to select the appropriate VR processing scheme, as well as to optimize the process operating parameters (Sato et al 2010; Scott et al 2001; Xu et al 2007)
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