Understanding “Fouling” in Extremely Complex Petroleum Mixtures

Aikaterini Kondyli,Wolfgang Schrader

doi:10.1021/acsaem.0c01326

Aikaterini Kondyli, Wolfgang Schrader

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.0c01326

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Abstract

“Fouling”, the unwanted deposition of solids, causes significant operational difficulties in petroleum producing and processing industries and is considered a billion dollar problem. There are two routes of petroleum fouling: physical fouling, where material of low-solubility precipitates, and chemical fouling, where a chemical reaction produces insoluble material, often on the surface of heat exchangers. By implementing laboratory-scale experimental simulations of the industrial process using a petroleum derived light crude oil fraction, it is shown that chemical fouling proceeds via multistep pathways involving dehydrogenation and radical formation reactions on PAHs, resulting in the formation of carbonaceous deposits.

Highlights

ABSTRACT: “Fouling”, the unwanted deposition of solids, causes significant operational difficulties in petroleum producing and processing industries and is considered a billion dollar problem
One of the most important chemical side reactions, which causes the deposition of materials, often on the surface of hot metallic components such as heat exchangers or another type of hot processing unit, is called fouling.[2−5] These deposits need to be removed regularly, which makes fouling a billion dollar problem.[6]
In order to gain insightful information on the reactions that occur during fouling, we constructed a laboratory-scale reactor to simulate the conditions of an oil processing unit

Summary

Introduction

ABSTRACT: “Fouling”, the unwanted deposition of solids, causes significant operational difficulties in petroleum producing and processing industries and is considered a billion dollar problem. In order to gain insightful information on the reactions that occur during fouling, we constructed a laboratory-scale reactor to simulate the conditions of an oil processing unit. The two most important types of fouling in crude oil processing are physical and chemical fouling.[3] Physical fouling can occur from petroleum materials that contain some heavy and low-solubility compounds, such as asphaltenes.[7−11] They can be deposited when lighter compounds present in the oil, acting as a solvent, are evaporated or removed.

Results

Conclusion