Characterization of heavy oil by capillary supercritical fluid chromatography

Conference · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988 · Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Pet. Chem., Prepr.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6687818

Fuhr, B J; Holloway, L R; Reichert, C

The characterization of heavy oils and bitumen produced by thermal recovery methods may aid in bringing about the following benefits: improved recovery methods, promotion of upgrading in the reservoir, improved emulsion treatment and optimized use of diluent for transportation. Because of the high proportion of nonvolatile compounds in heavy oils, gas chromatography (GC) is not particularly useful for characterization purposes. High performance liquid chromatography, while capable of analyzing a larger proportion of the nonvolatiles, possesses considerably less resolution than GC. By utilizing mobile phases in their supercritical region it is possible to study compounds that cannot be vaporized for GC analysis, yet still attain the resolution approaching that of GC. Another advantage of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) with the commonly used mobile phase CO/sub 2/, is the ability to employ the flame ionization detector (FID) which provides a uniform response over a wide range of compound types. SFC methods used on packed columns are excellent for low resolution separations into hydrocarbon group types and can produce data in about 5 to 15 min. A number of workers have described the use of packed silica columns for the separation and quantitation of saturate and aromatic component types in gasolines and middle distillate fuels, and of saturates, aromatics and polars in high boiling residues. In these studies the mobile phase was CO/sub 2/ and the detector was the FID. Campbell and Lee reported a semi-preparative SFC method using a packed, amino-modified silica column for the separation of aromatics according to the number of rings in a coal tar and a solved refined coal heavy distillate.

• Research Organization: Alberta Research Council, P.O. Box 8330, Station F, Edmonton, Alberta T6H 5X2 (CA)
• OSTI ID: 6687818
• Report Number(s): CONF-880659-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Pet. Chem., Prepr.; (United States) Journal Volume: 33:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010600 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Properties & Composition
02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
023000 -- Petroleum-- Properties & Composition
04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040500 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Properties & Composition
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400105 -- Separation Procedures
BITUMENS
CAPILLARY FLOW
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
CHROMATOGRAPHY
COAL TAR OILS
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID FLOW
FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HYDROCARBONS
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM FRACTIONS
RECOVERY
SAMPLING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPECTROSCOPY
TAR
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
THERMAL RECOVERY
VISCOSITY