Kinetic Modeling of Hydrocarbon Conversion to Asphaltenes in Sulphur-treated Asphalts

Abstract

A study was made of the kinetics of the conversion of the hydrocarbon constituents of residual asphalts to asphaltenes at temperatures of 210-250 • C. The reactions occurring led to the manifold increases in the composition of asphaltenes. Kinetic rate parameters were determined at different temperatures and the temperature effect was correlated by Arrhenius dependency. The reaction order was found to vary with temperature, increasing from 1.60 and yielding a maximum order of 4.2 at 250 • C, thus confirming other results obtained in the literature. An activation energy of 266.0 kJ/mol was also recorded which is quite lower than 373 kJ/mol reported for the noncatalytic reaction. The overall effect of the catalyst employed was the reduction of the temperature at which maximum asphaltene yield could be obtained.