• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.14 no.4 s.44
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• pp.268-276
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• 2005

Vacuum Residue (VR) combustion tests were carried out with a 20 kg/hr (fuel feed rate) small scale reactor. The nozzle used was a steam atomized, internal mixing type. Compared to heavy oil, vacuum residue used in this work is extremely high viscous and contains high percentages of sulfur, carbon residue and heavy metals. To ignite atomized VR particles, it was necessary to preheat the reactor, and it has been done with LP gas. The axial and radial gas temperature, major species concentrations and solid sample were analyzed when varying the fuel feed rate. The main reaction zone of atomized VR-air flame in a reactor was anticipated within about 1 m from the burner tip by considering the profiles oi gas temperature, species concentration and particle size measured along with the reactor. At downstream, the thermally, fully developed temperature distribution was obtained. SEM photographs revealed that VR carbon particles collected from the reactor are porous and have many blow-holes on the particle surface.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2016

It has been estimated that the Earth has nearly 1.688 trillion barrels of crude oil, which will last 53.3 years at current extraction rates. The organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) group forecasted that the oil prices will not jump to triple-digit territory within a decade, but it can quickly increase as the political issue for reducing oil production appears. With the potential of serious shortage of conventional hydrocarbon resources, the heavy oil, one of unconventional hydrocarbon resources including oil sand and natural bitumen has attracted worldwide interest. The heavy oil contains heavy hydrocarbon compounds, commonly called as resins and asphaltenes, with long carbon chains more than sixty carbon atoms. The high content of heavier fraction corresponds with the high molecular weight, viscosity, and boiling point. Physicochemical properties of residues from vacuum distillation of conventional oil, referred to as vacuum residues (VR) were similar to those of heavy oil. For the development of heavy oil reserves, reducing the heavy oil viscosity is the most important. In this article, commercially employed aquathermolysis processes and their application to VR upgrading are discussed. VR contains transition metals such as Ni and V, but these metals should be eliminated in advance for further refining. Recent studies on demetallization technologies for VR are also reviewed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.467-472
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• 2017

In this study, the reforming reaction of vacuum residue (VR) was carried out using aquathermolysis reaction. VR showed a prone to decrease the amount of resins and asphaltenes in the constituents, and to increase saturates and aromatics when reacting with steam at 30 bar and above $300^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. This tendency became more evident when the amount of steam used was excessive than the amount of VR. When the aquathermolysis reaction was performed at $300^{\circ}C$ and 30 bar for 48 h, the VR composition was changed from the initial state (S/A/R/A = 7.3%/43.7%/25.6%/23.5%) to final state (S/A/R/A = 6.8%/57%/12.2%/24.0%), and the contents of the resins decreased by 13% and the aromatic compounds increased by 13%. The viscosity decreased from 880,000 cp to 290,000 cp by 68%. When 10% of decalin, which is easy to provide hydrogen, was added, the viscosity decreased by 68% in 24 h. The VR composition showed a reduction in the contents of resins and asphaltenes from 49% to 17% from the initial state (S/A/R/A = 7.3%/43.7%/25.6%/23.5%) to the final state (S/A/R/A = 4.5%/63.5%/12.5%/20.0%), and the content of aromatics was maximized to 63.5%. The gas layer formed by the aquathermolysis reaction in the reactor chamber was collected and analyzed by GC-MS spectroscopy. As a result, various hydrocarbon compounds such as ethylbenzene, octane and dimethylbenzene were detected.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.159-164
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• 2004

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.468-473
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• 2018

In this study, the reforming reaction of vacuum residues (VR), high viscosity oil residues produced from vacuum distillation process of petroleum oil, was carried out using catalytic aquathermolysis reaction. VR showed a prone to decrease the amount of resins and asphaltenes in the constituents, and to increase saturates and aromatics when reacting with steam at 30 bar and above $300^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. When the amount of steam is not enough at this reaction, the asphaltene content in the products was rather increased after the reaction. As a result of the catalytic aquathermolysis using the metal oxide-zeolite catalyst with the decaline as a hydrogen donor, a 10% decrease in resin and asphaltene as well as a 10% increase in the aromatic hydrocarbon were observed. Consequently, the viscosity of VR decreased by 70% after the reaction. GC-Mass spectroscopy showed that the aquathermolysis of VR resulted in the decomposition of the resins and asphaltens into a low molecular weight material.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate physical and chemical characteristics of the distillates and residue of Athabasca oilsand bitumen obtained from Canada, using a vacuum distillation unit. The distillates and residue produced from the vacuum distillation were characterized through atomic analysis, SARA analysis, and measurement of boiling point distribution, molecular weight, and API gravity. The vacuum distillation equipment consisted of a 6-litter volume vessel, a glass-packed column, a condenser, a reflux device, a flask fer collecting distillates, and a temperature controller. The cutting of distillates was performed with four steps under the condition of full vacuum and maximum temperature of $320^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the sulfur amount and average molecular weight of the distillates were significantly reduced compared to those of oilsand bitumen. As the cutting temperature increased, the hydrogen amount decreased but the sulfur amount and average molecular weight increased in the distillates.

• Clean Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.56-61
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• 2011

In this study, hydrocarcking of vacuum residue was carried out in an autoclave reactor at $450^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$ with a commercial catalyst (HDM) and the quantitative product distributions were analyzed by GC-SIMDIS method or simple distillation. During catalytic hydrocracking, thermal cracking also occurred together with catalytic cracking and the higher conversion and selectivity of gasoline and naphtha were obtained at high reaction temperature. GC-SIMDIS and simple distillation revealed different results for the analysis of products produced at different hydrocracking temperatures; almost same results were obtained for the product produced at $500^{\circ}C$ but different ones for the product produced at $450^{\circ}C$. In the analysis of product produced at $450^{\circ}C$, the GC-SIMDIS showed that a main product was VGO while a main product in the simple distillation was diesel, which implies that the simple distillation for the $450^{\circ}C$ reaction was not accurate due to thermal cracking of the product by the simple distillation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.496-501
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• 2022

In this study, an anode material for lithium secondary batteries was manufactured using petroleum-based residual oil, which is a petroleum refining by-product. Among petroleum-based residual oils, pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), fluidized catalyst cracking-decant oil (FCC-DO), and vacuum residue (VR) were used as carbon precursors. The physicochemical characteristics of petroleum-based residual oil were confirmed through Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Time-of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) and elemental analysis (EA), and the structural characteristics of anode materials manufactured from residual oil were evaluated using X-ray crystallography (XRD) and Raman spectroscopic techniques. VR was found to contain a wide range of molecular weight distributions and large amounts of impurities compared to PFO and FCC-DO, and PFO and FCC-DO exhibited almost similar physicochemical characteristics. From the XRD analysis results, carbonized PFO and FCC-DO showed similar d₀₀₂ values. However, it was confirmed that FCC-DO had a more developed layered structure than PFO in Lc (Length of a and c axes in the crystal system) and La values. In addition, FCC-DO showed the best cycle characteristics in electrochemical characteristics evaluation. According to the physicochemical and electrochemical results of the petroleum-based residual oil, FCC-DO is a better carbon precursor for a lithium secondary battery than PFO and VR.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 1993

In order to maximize the utility of vacuum residue, supercritical solvent extraction technique where n-pentane was used as a supercritical solvent was applied to obtain deasphalted oil from vacuum residue. Oil-extraction yield at various temperatures and pressures and the contents of metal complex and sulfur of extracted oil were investigated. In supercritical state, extraction yield of deasphalted oil was found to be strongly dependent on the n-pentane density, and the metal complex content of extracted oil was effectively lowered when compared with that of vacuum residue. However, the sulfur content of extracted oil showed little difference when compared with that of vacuum residue.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.652-656
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• 2018

In this study, effects of the reaction pressure were studied for petroleum-based pitch synthesis. A two-stage reaction process was performed based on different reaction pressure conditions. Each stage experiments for the two-stage reaction were consecutively carried out. The first stage was consisted of three different pressure conditions; high (10 bar), normal and low (0.1 bar). And the second stage was carried out at the normal and low (0.1 bar) pressure. The pitch synthesis was realized at $400^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Thermal properties and molecular weight distributions of each samples were investigated by analyzing the softening point and MALDI-TOF data. Volatilized components during the pith synthesis were measured by GC-SIMDIS. In case of the first-step reaction with the high pressure condition, the low molecular weight component participated to the pitch formation more effectively and the pitch with the low softening point was obtained. However, for the case of the first-step with the low pressure, the low molecular weight component was vent outside and the partial coke formation occurred. Eventually, pitch properties such as the softening point and yield were controlled effectively by changing the pressure in the pitch synthesis reaction.