Study of Characteristics and Kinetics of Catalytic Degradation of Asphaltene

Key words: 
• Dongying depression /
• asphaltene /
• simulation experiment /
• catalytic degradation /
• kinetics

Abstract: The thermal simulation experiments on the catalytic degradation of Dongying asphaltene have been carried out by using pyrolvsis gas chromatography at the presence of mineral and salt.The isothermal experimental data are used to develop a kinetic model of the generation of the pyrolvsates including gas hvdrocarhon, light hydrocarbon and heavy hydrocarbon.It is found that K₂CO₃ acts as a catalyst to promote the generation of all pyrolvsates.At the temperature of 570℃,the yield of total hydrocarbons is increased by about 20% in the presence of K₂CO₃.Montmorillonite increases the veild of gas and light hydrocarbon but decreases the yield of heavy hydrocarbon.At the temperature of 570℃,the yield of total hydrocarbons is increased by about 10% in the presence of montmorillonite.The higher activation energy is obtained for the generation of heavy hydrocarbon in the presence of montmorillonite while the lower activation energies are calculated for other pyrolvsates. Finally, the mechanism of catalytic degradation of asphaltene is tentatively investigated.