High paraffin content

Linear, branched, and cyclic paraffins all exist in refined fuel. Fuel performance problems can often be directly related to the type and concentration of paraffin present. TABLE 5-3 provides information on the typical carbon number range and boiling-point temperatures of paraffins found in several representative fuels and other petroleum products. 

TABLE 5-3. Typical Carbon Number Range and Boiling Point Temperatures of Paraffins Found in Fuels and Other Petroleum Products 

Fuel Paraffin Carbon Number Range Paraffin Boiling Temperatures, °F (°C) 

Some of the important fuel characteristics associated with high paraffin content in fuel are described as follows  

Paraffins function poorly as a solvent for some organic compounds. This fact can have various consequences. For example, gums, deposits, and fuel degradation products will not be dissolved or held in solution by high-paraffin-content fuels. As a result, gums and degradation products will fall from solution and settle onto fuel system parts such as storage tank bottoms and fuel system lines. The KB value for selected petroleum products is provided in TABLE 5-4. 

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Straight run diesei fuels have a high paraffin content, which is desirable, incidentally, for obtaining high cetane numbers. The higher the distillation end point, the higher is the heavy paraffin content (with a carbon number greater than C24). 

The amount of benzene produced in a reformer will depend on the composition of the feed. Every crude oil has naphtha with different PNA (paraffin, naphthene, aromatics) content. In commercial naphtha trading, the PNA content is often an important specification. High naphthene and aromatic content would indicate a good reformer feed. High paraffin content would indicate a good olefin plant feed. 

For most distillate fuels, cloud point temperatures can range from 50°F to -10°F (10.0°C to -23.3°C) or lower. However, typical cloud point temperatures fall between 6°F and 16°F (-14.4°C and -8.9°C). Distillate blends having a high paraffin content will often have cloud point and pour point values close together, sometimes within 5°F (2.8°C). Highly aromatic blends will usually have cloud and pour point values further apart in temperature. 

Oils of high paraffin content are particularly effective. Naphthenic-based oils, if used, require the use of special oil-resistant rubber belting on conveyors. Oils containing added amines are said to have enhanced dust-con-trol properties. 

Crude Distillation. Naphthas are qualitatively referred to as lean (high paraffin content) or rich (low paraffin content) with important consequences of their composition on the ease with which they can be reformed to aromatics and high octane gasoline. 

A key process in the production of gasoline, catalytic reforming is used to increase the octane number of light crude fractions having high paraffin and naphthene contents (C7-C8-C9) by converting them to aromatics. 

Asphaltic—contain relatively a large amount of polynuclear aromatics, a high asphaltene content, and relatively less paraffins than paraffinic crudes. 

Like aniline point, the K factor differentiates between the highly paraffinic and aromatic stocks. However, within the narrow range (K = 11.5-12.0), the K factor does not correlate between aromatics and naphthenes. Instead, it relates fairly well to the paraffin content (Figure 2-11). The K factor does not provide information as to the ratio of naphthene and paraffin contents. The ratio of naphthenes to paraffins can vary considerably with the same K values (Table 2-8). 

One way to get a representative product distribution for a specific period is to remove all FT products in the reactor system and replace them with a substance that will not influence selectivity determination. The FT reaction is then run for a specific period, after which a full analysis can be done that will represent only the products produced during that specific period. In Figure 13.8, data are presented for a run started with the catalyst suspended in a highly paraffinic wax (FT HI wax, C30-C90). After a certain time of synthesis, the FT run was stopped and the catalyst placed under inert conditions (argon). The reactor content was then displaced with degassed and dried polyalphaolefin oil (Durasyn). After restarting the FT synthesis, the total product spectrum was determined (HI run after displacement). It was found that the value of a2 was much lower than before the displacement of the HI wax. In fact, the a2 values were quite comparable to those measured when the FT synthesis was started up with Durasyn (compare with Durasyn runs 1, 2, and 3). This clearly illustrates the impact that the reactor medium used to start the FT reaction can have on the determination of the a-value. The results further show that there was no change in the value of a2 of the iron catalyst up to 500 h on-line. 

The presence of paraffin wax is usually reflected in the paraffinic nature of the constituent fractions, and a high asphaltic content corresponds with the naphthenic properties of the fractions. As a result, the misconception has arisen that paraffin-base crude oils consist mainly of paraffins and asphalt-base crude oils mainly of cyclic (or naphthenic) hydrocarbons. In addition to paraffin- and asphalt-base oils, a mixed base had to be introduced for those oils that leave a mixture of bitumen and paraffin wax as a residue by nondestructive distillation. 

While such data are not included in this report, our work has also shown that in FCC operations the acidic matrix is able to better crack and isomerize more n-paraffins, thus reducing the n-paraffin content in middle distillate and thereby the characteristic high cloud point associated with it, while also raising octane number by removing or isomerizing n-paraffins in the gasoline fraction. 

Cracked gasoline FCC gasoline Composed of paraffinic, olefinic, and aromatic compounds branched compounds are present in a relatively high amount typically has a higher RON than MON high-olefin-content FCC gasoline can lead to gum formation and fuel color degradation. 

This is the breakdown of the percentage of paraffins, olefins, naphthenes and aromatics in gasoline. Fuel olefin content is closely monitored. High-olefin-content gasoline is unstable and can lead to various fuel problems such as deposit formation and color degradation. 

A high cetane number can be related to a high diesel paraffin content... 

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