Asphaltenes represent a solubility cut in to the continuum of petroleum constituents, and they may contain pericondensed aromatic and other entrained materials such as waxes and polar aromatics.  The Asphaltene Determinator method based on the new solubility-based on-column precipitation and re-dissolution technique developed at Western Research Institute (WRI) allows for the rapid separation of asphaltenes into chemically meaningful subfractions.  The method can be used to determine the total pericondensed aromatic (TPA) content of oil by comparing peak areas from an evaporative light scattering detector and an optical absorbance detector at 500 nm.  A linear plot of wt. % gravimetric heptane asphaltene values vs. calculated TPA results for several residua materials shows that the TPA values correlate reasonably well with the gravimetric heptane asphaltenes.  However, the intercept of the line is negative, indicating that the gravimetric method does not account for all of the pericondensed material in the samples.

Total pericondensed aromatic (TPA) determination as an alternative to gravimetric asphaltenes

241st National Meeting (2011)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.