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Title: Improved Processes to Remove Naphthenic Acids

Abstract

In the past three years, we followed the work plan as we suggested in the proposal and made every efforts to fulfill the project objectives. Based on our large amount of creative and productive work, including both of experimental and theoretic aspects, we received important technical breakthrough on naphthenic acid removal process and obtained deep insight on catalytic decarboxylation chemistry. In detail, we established an integrated methodology to serve for all of the experimental and theoretical work. Our experimental investigation results in discovery of four type effective catalysts to the reaction of decarboxylation of model carboxylic acid compounds. The adsorption experiment revealed the effectiveness of several solid materials to naphthenic acid adsorption and acidity reduction of crude oil, which can be either natural minerals or synthesized materials. The test with crude oil also received promising results, which can be potentially developed into a practical process for oil industry. The theoretical work predicted several possible catalytic decarboxylation mechanisms that would govern the decarboxylation pathways depending on the type of catalysts being used. The calculation for reaction activation energy was in good agreement with our experimental measurements.

Authors:
; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
California Institute of Technology
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
881034
DOE Contract Number:
FC26-02NT15383
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
02 PETROLEUM; ACTIVATION ENERGY; ADSORPTION; CARBOXYLIC ACIDS; CATALYSTS; CHEMISTRY; DECARBOXYLATION; PETROLEUM; PH VALUE; REMOVAL

Citation Formats

Aihua Zhang, Qisheng Ma, Kangshi Wang, Yongchun Tang, and William A. Goddard. Improved Processes to Remove Naphthenic Acids. United States: N. p., 2005. Web. doi:10.2172/881034.
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Aihua Zhang, Qisheng Ma, Kangshi Wang, Yongchun Tang, & William A. Goddard. Improved Processes to Remove Naphthenic Acids. United States. doi:10.2172/881034.
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Aihua Zhang, Qisheng Ma, Kangshi Wang, Yongchun Tang, and William A. Goddard. Fri . "Improved Processes to Remove Naphthenic Acids". United States. doi:10.2172/881034. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/881034.
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@article{osti_881034,
title = {Improved Processes to Remove Naphthenic Acids},
author = {Aihua Zhang and Qisheng Ma and Kangshi Wang and Yongchun Tang and William A. Goddard},
abstractNote = {In the past three years, we followed the work plan as we suggested in the proposal and made every efforts to fulfill the project objectives. Based on our large amount of creative and productive work, including both of experimental and theoretic aspects, we received important technical breakthrough on naphthenic acid removal process and obtained deep insight on catalytic decarboxylation chemistry. In detail, we established an integrated methodology to serve for all of the experimental and theoretical work. Our experimental investigation results in discovery of four type effective catalysts to the reaction of decarboxylation of model carboxylic acid compounds. The adsorption experiment revealed the effectiveness of several solid materials to naphthenic acid adsorption and acidity reduction of crude oil, which can be either natural minerals or synthesized materials. The test with crude oil also received promising results, which can be potentially developed into a practical process for oil industry. The theoretical work predicted several possible catalytic decarboxylation mechanisms that would govern the decarboxylation pathways depending on the type of catalysts being used. The calculation for reaction activation energy was in good agreement with our experimental measurements.},
doi = {10.2172/881034},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2005},
month = {Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2005}
}
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Technical Report:
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DOI:  10.2172/881034
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  • ; ; ; ...
    In the first year of this project, we have established our experimental and theoretical methodologies for studies of the catalytic decarboxylation process. We have developed both glass and stainless steel micro batch type reactors for the fast screening of various catalysts with reaction substrates of model carboxylic acid compounds and crude oil samples. We also developed novel product analysis methods such as GC analyses for organic acids and gaseous products; and TAN measurements for crude oil. Our research revealed the effectiveness of several solid catalysts such as NA-Cat-1 and NA-Cat-2 for the catalytic decarboxylation of model compounds; and NA-Cat-5{approx}NA-Cat-9 formore » the acid removal from crude oil. Our theoretical calculations propose a three-step concerted oxidative decarboxylation mechanism for the NA-Cat-1 catalyst.« less

  • ; ;
    In the second year of this project, we continued our effort to develop low temperature decarboxylation catalysts and investigate the behavior of these catalysts at different reaction conditions. We conducted a large number of dynamic measurements with crude oil and model compounds to obtain the information at different reaction stages, which was scheduled as the Task2 in our work plan. We developed a novel adsorption method to remove naphthenic acid from crude oil using naturally occurring materials such as clays. Our results show promise as an industrial application. The theoretical modeling proposed several possible reaction pathways and predicted the reactivitymore » depending on the catalysts employed. From all of these studies, we obtained more comprehensive understanding about catalytic decarboxylation and oil upgrading based on the naphthenic acid removal concept.« less

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