Mesoscale Organization
in a Physically Separated Vacuum
Residue: Comparison to Asphaltenes in a Simple Solvent
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Abstract
Physical separation of heavy oils and bitumen is of particular
interest because it improves the description of the chemical and structural
organization in these industrial and challenging fluids (Zhao, B.; Shaw, J. M. Composition and size distribution of coherent nanostructures
in Athabasca bitumen and Maya crude oil. Energy
Fuels 2007, 21, 2795−2804). In this study, permeates
and retentates, differing in aggregate concentrations and sizes, were
obtained from nanofiltration of a vacuum residue at 200 °C with
membranes of varying pore size. Elemental composition and density
extrapolations show that aggregates are best represented as <i>n</i>-pentane asphaltenes, while the dispersing phase corresponds
to <i>n</i>-pentane maltenes. Small-angle X-ray scattering
(SAXS) measurements are processed, on this basis, to calculate the
size and mass of the aggregates. Aggregates in the vacuum residue
are similar in size and mass to asphaltenes in toluene, and temperature
elevation decreases the size of the aggregates. Wide-angle X-ray scattering
(WAXS) highlights a coherent domain observed for fluids containing
aggregates, corresponding to aromatic stacking described for dry asphaltenes.
The scattered signal in this region, not observed in maltenes, grows
as aggregate content increases, and the signal persists up to 300
°C. A generic behavior of aggregation in the vacuum residue is
depicted, from nanoaggregates to large fractal clusters with high
aggregation numbers, that is similar to the organization in toluene