Abstract
Abstract The influence of pressure, temperature, and relative quantity of decane on theseparation of plastic or solid phases rich in bitumen from thedecane-tetralin-bitumen system has been investigated in a restricted range ofcomposition. Measurements were made at atmospheric pressure and at 8000 psi fortemperatures of 70, 160, and 220'F. Behavior similar to that of then-pentane-tetralin-bitumen system was found except that the influence ofpressure upon the separation of bitumen was radically different in thedecanetetralin-bitumen system than that found in any of the earlierstudies. Introduction The separation of solid asphaltic or bituminous material from hydrocarbonliquids has been noted in petroleum operations and studied in the laboratory.Publications relating to the separation of bitumen from naturally occurringhydrocarbon mixtures were reviewed in a recent publication. Earlyinvestigations of these mixtures showed a relatively complex behavior, with thequantity of separated bitumen increasing with increased weight fraction of thelighter hydrocarbons until a state was reached at which the separation of asecond liquid phase (liquid II) began. Further increase in the weight fractionof the lighter component caused a decrease in the amount of solid bitumen.However, the total quantity of bitumen in liquid II and in the separated solidphase continued to increase in a regular fashion. This type of behavior wasalso found in the n-pentane-tetralin-bitumen system. Because of this similarity in behavior of the simpler system and more complexnaturally occurring hydrocarbon mixtures, it became desirable to extend thestudy to aliphatic hydrocarbons of higher molecular weight. As a part of thisstudy an investigation of the decane-tetralin-bitumen system was carried out at70, 160, and 220'F. The details of the techniques employed in the preparationof a purified bitumen from the natural product have already been described. Anadequate quantity was prepared from a crude bitumen obtained from the SanJoaquin Valley by leaching, solution, and precipitation processes. The purifiedmaterial was similar in all measured respects to that employed in the earlierinvestigation of the n-pentane-tetralin-bitumen system. T.P. 2731
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