The
pyrolysis of asphaltenes under hydrothermal environments covering
the subcritical and supercritical regions of water was applied, and
the influence of the presence of H-donors was surveyed by a reaction
kinetics analysis based on the lumping approach. Under hydrothermal
environments, the pyrolysis of asphaltenes consisting mainly of condensation
to coke and decomposition to maltenes is significantly faster than
that under a N2 environment. The H-donors introduced, decalin
or maltenes, may provide nonaromatic H atoms, capping the carbon radicals
essential to pyrolysis. Accordingly, the apparent activation energies
of the condensation and the decomposition of asphaltenes both increase
to varying degrees. The pyrolysis of asphaltenes in the presence of
a small quantity of decalin is seriously retarded in subcritical water
but recovers rapidly in supercritical water owning to the promoted
initiation efficiency at high temperature. Accompanied by a large
amount of maltenes, the decomposition to maltenes involved in the
original pyrolysis network of asphaltenes can be neglected.
Key indicatorsSingle-crystal X-ray study T = 293 K Mean (e-O) = 0.003 Å R factor = 0.024 wR factor = 0.059 Data-to-parameter ratio = 10.6For details of how these key indicators were automatically derived from the article, see
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