Knowledge of petroleum heavy residue potential as feedstock in refining process using thermogravimetry

In the petroleum industry, previous knowledge of the feedstock's potential to produce light material is an important aspect of refining. For the evaluation of heavy petroleum fractions, thermogravimetry (TG), a thermal analysis technique, is considered a good analytical tool to determine the thermal behavior of these fractions at high temperatures. In the present work, TG analyses were made of petroleum distillation residues from different Brazilian oils. The apparent cracking activation energy of saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes was also determined by TG. Saturates and aromatics showed values of 80-120 kJmol(-1) at low conversions (<0.3) and of 120-220 kJ mol(-1) at high conversions (>0.3). The thermal cracking activation energy of resins and asphaltenes occurred between 220-300 kJ mol(-1), i.e., at higher values than those of aromatic and saturated fractions. This paper discusses the prediction of carbonaceous residue based on thermal analysis. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.