Upgrading From Petroleum And Coal-Derived Asphaltenes

Abstract

Asphaltene is the major obstacle for the catalytic cracking process in the industrial refining practices as well as coal liquefaction. The generation of coke and the adsorption of asphaltene particles reduce the effective surface area of catalyst. In addition, the efficiency of coal hydropyrolysis is decreased due to the agglomeration of asphaltenes. Thus, most of the conventional hydrogenation processes are working at high temperature and high hydrogen pressure. Ultrasound can provide localized cavitation centers with extremely high temperature and high pressure at room temperature and ambient pressure. Surfactant is widely used in enhance oil recovery and is able to improve the dispersion of asphaltene particles. A solid phase of sodium borohydride is used to provide a constant hydrogen supply in this investigation. with the existence of surfactant and ultrasound, both petroleum asphaltene and coal-derived asphaltene can be converted into lower molecular compounds (gas oil and resins) with a satisfactory conversion. The performance of the commercially available surfactant Span 20 is compared with the self-generated surfactant Wet-sol on both petroleum and coal-derived asphaltenes.