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Title: Analysis of heavy oils: Method development and application to Cerro Negro heavy petroleum: Detailed separation and analysis of basic compounds

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6240542· OSTI ID:6240542

Methodology for separation and analysis of basic compounds in petroleum and syncrudes is described. Petroleum bases primarily consist of two general types or compound groups: alkylaromatic species with at least one nitrogen and potentially other heteroatoms incorporated into the aromatic nucleus, and predominantly aliphatic structures containing weakly basic functionalities such as sulfoxide, amide, and other carbonyl-based moieties. Nonaqueous ion exchange liquid chromatography effectively separates these two compound groups. Each compound group is further fractionated into subtypes using an HPLC method employing a silica column and a programmed ternary mobile phase containing propanoic acid. Within each group, compounds elute from the HPLC column in order of increasing basicity. The above also holds for syncrudes, except that aromatic nitrogen types greatly predominate over all weakly basic types and that amino-substituted aromatics are present in addition to azaarene-type structures. The bulk of the report discusses separation strategy, methodology, and results supporting separation selectivity as described above. In addition, nonaqueous titration, infrared, mass spectrometric (MS) and GC/MS techniques for analysis of subfractions are described along with representative results from their application. Limited compositional data from analysis of bases from Wilmington and Cerro Negro petroleums and SRC-II coal liquid are also presented. Prior work in analysis of basic compounds is reviewed and future research direction is addressed. 84 refs., 16 figs., 23 tabs.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Bartlesville, OK (United States). National Inst. for Petroleum and Energy Research (NIPER)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
FC22-83FE60149
OSTI ID:
6240542
Report Number(s):
NIPER-323; ON: DE89000746
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English