Steam cracking of hydrocarbons: 4 analysis of high-boiling products from naphtha in a quartz reactor

Abstract

Part 3 of this series reported on the steam cracking of straight-run naphtha in a stainless steel and a quartz reactor. High-boiling polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons were formed in a quartz reactor but were not found as products from a stainless-steel reactor. In this paper the analysis of the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons is discussed. The high-boiling fraction was separated by high performance liquid chromatography and by capillary gas chromatography. About 200 of the compounds present were separated by the latter method. Twenty profiling compounds, with boiling points up to 462 OC, were identified by the coelution technique and by combined gas chrmtography/mass spectrometry. The influence of the wall effects on the proceeding of secondary reactions in metal and quartz reactors is discussed