Experimental campaign, modeling, and sensitivity analysis for the molecular distillation of petroleum residues 673.15 K+

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)This research activity proposes a sensitivity analysis of the molecular distillation process by focusing the attention on the response of the overall distillate flow rate under several conditions of distillation temperature and feed flow rate. Specific equations to characterize physicochemical properties of petroleum residues have been formulated by means of ASTM-based experimental campaigns combined with specific optimization techniques. The steady state refining process simulator by Petrobras coupled with appropriate finite-difference methods is adopted for the simulation of a heated and extremely low-pressure falling film evaporator to separate a heavy residue 673.15K+ of Gamma + Sigma crude oil. Numerical results are validated on the experimental points. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers. All rights reserved.902243258Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FINEPCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Correlation for predicting the molecular weight of Brazilian petroleum residues and cuts: An application for the simulation of a molecular distillation process

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)In this work a correlation to predict the molecular weights of Brazilian heavy petroleum residues and cuts is developed. The residues were obtained from conventional distillation processes ASTM D 2892 (2005) and ASTM D 5236 (2003). The correlation was developed by adjusting experimental parameters of the API correlation (defined for light cuts). For the adjustment, molecular weight data of atmospheric residues (673.15 K+) of 14 heavy crude oils (API <= 25.5) obtained from a steady state refining process simulator (PETROX) were used. The adjusted correlation was validated with data from the molecular weights of atmospheric residues derived from 7 other heavy Brazilian crude oils and very good results were obtained, with an average absolute deviation of 2.20%. Furthermore, the predicted molecular weights and actual measured ones using Vapor Pressure Osmometry (VPO) of the 10 distillate cuts and 10 residues obtained by molecular distillation of atmospheric residues were compared. In general, improved results are provided by the developed correlation in relation to the conventional method, with a good correspondence between the predicted and experimental values for the cuts and residues studied here. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.7817885Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FINEPCENPES-PETROBRASCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Molecular Distillation of Petroleum Residues and Physical-Chemical Characterization of Distillate Cuts Obtained in the Process

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Molecular distillation is presented as an alternative technique for the separation of petroleum residues. The technique was used to obtain 13 heavy petroleum cuts from three atmospheric residues (ARs) at 673.15 K and above. The cuts present initial and final boiling points between (673.15 and 951.15) K. To evaluate the efficiency of the technique, chemical characterization of residues and distillate cuts, which included SARA fractionation, (13)C NMR, elemental composition, and density and viscosity analysis, was performed. In addition, extended true boiling point curves of crude oils by simulated distillation and by molecular distillation were compared. An increase in the viscosity and in the density was observed in all cuts with an increased molecular distillation temperature. Such behavior demonstrates that highly polar components that have a high structural complexity, such as resins and asphaltenes, are concentrated at the higher temperatures of the process. A sensitivity analysis of these two properties, together with the temperature, showed that viscosity and density decreased with increased temperature. On the other hand, the thermal expansion coefficient values obtained were equivalent to those reported in literature for petroleum products. Furthermore, a complete characterization of crude oils was made using the molecular distillation process to extend the true boiling point (TBP) curves.55930683076Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FINEPCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq