The presence of asphaltenes is a key challenge in upgrading of heavy oils and resids. In this work, we studied the mechanism of asphaltenes conversion under hydroprocessing conditions by isolating components and studying them individually. We found that while asphaltenes can be completely converted and there is no limit in asphaltene conversion, the reaction rate can be very slow severely limited by their compositions. To debottleneck the limiting factors, we identified resins (isolated out of heptane deasphalted pentane-asphaltenes) can mitigate the detrimental effects by heptane-asphaltenes if treated alone. Furthermore, C<sub>7</sub> asphaltenes with enriched or depleted basic components show very little effect on catalyst activity, indicating the aromatic moieties (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) could also be equally or more important in catalyst deactivation. The mechanism of asphaltene conversion is consistent with current understanding from FTICR MS and AFM imaging of asphaltenes structures.

Mechanistic understanding of petroleum asphaltene conversion

2019 Spring National Meeting

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