Cold Lake asphaltenes hydroconversion

The thermal hydroconversion of Cold Lake asphaltenes was studied initially to provide a basis for evaluation of catalytic effectiveness in subsequent work. Series of thermal runs were made at 335°C, 365°C and 400°C and the reaction products were separated as described previously. Several kinetic models were tried, but after examining the variability of our data, we decided on the simple first-order asphaltene decomposition model shown below ... 

Figure 1. Thermal hydroconversion of Cold Lake asphaltenes at 400°C and 6 MPa H2 asphaltenes ( A) maltenes (O) coke ) model (-).

Figure 3. Arrhenius plot for hydroconversion of Cold Lake asphaltenes 200 ppm molybdenum (A) thermal (0).

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