The structural nature and solubility of residual fuel oil fractions

A study of the combustion chemistry of petroleum and bio-fuel oil asphaltenes

“…The composition of the oil asphaltene used is similar to those studied previously by us [13,15]. The carbon content of the petroleum asphaltenes were 81.4-83.3wt%, the sulphur content 1.7-3.0 wt%, nitrogen 1.2-1.5 wt%, vanadium 1750-1755 mg kg -1 , and a small amount of oxygen.…”

“…On the other hand, the major contribution of 'archipelago' structures has been suggested by Herod et al. [9] and by Waller et al [13] on the basis of Py-GC experiments; further, Karimi et al [11] pyrolysed thin films of asphaltene which yielded the constituent 1-4 aromatic ring molecular 'building blocks' apparently from 'archipelago' structures, whereas the 'island' structures might be expected to produce more condensed molecules. The overriding importance of structures with smaller aromatic units was again emphasised by Karimi et al [11].…”

“…In this paper, we discuss and re-interpret in the light of the present work, the results from our previous experimental studies [13,15] of the rates of combustion of droplets, and hence sprays, of these fuels; the combustion mechanism; and the way in which fine particulate soot and cenospheres are produced. The significance of this information in relation to oil-fired boilers and to slow-speed Diesel engines is described and the influence of the chemical composition of the fuels, especially the asphaltenes, of the heavy fuel, and the analogous compounds present in the bio-fuel is discussed.…”

“…The asphaltenes present in processed crude oil such as HFO may have slightly different structures because of thermal or catalytic reactions [14]. More exact chemical data are required to relate structure to the thermal decomposition reactions [13,15] and cenosphere formation [16] during the combustion of heavy fuel oil.…”

“…Previously we investigated the influence of asphaltenes on the combustion of heavy oils by burning oil droplets with different asphaltene content either suspended singly, by passage through a drop tube furnace, and by spray combustion [13,15]. It was observed that asphaltenes reduced ignition delay because of the volatiles generated by pyrolysis The influence of asphaltenes on combustion of did not affect droplet burning time; the stack solids collected during spray combustion depended in a second -order manner on the asphaltene content of the oil.…”