(204p) Study On the Pyrolysis of Vacuum Residue Using Thermogravimetric Analysis and Distributed Activation Energy Model (DAEM) Method

Conventional oil is expected to be exhausted in the near future, but the world demand for oil keeps increasing. The production of conventional oil is insufficient to meet the growing demand for oil, therefore, higher price of conventional oil is inevitable. Unconventional oil such as oil sands bitumen and extra heavy oil is attracting attention for its reserves which are as large as the same order of magnitude of conventional oil reserves. In addition, the production amount of low value vacuum residue (VR) which still contains 50-80 wt% hydrocarbon oil is increasing but the demand for VR is decreasing. Consequently, the technologies which make unconventional oil and low value crude residues available become increasingly crucial. The purpose of this study is to understand pyrolysis characteristics and to determine kinetic parameters of vacuum residue. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted using a non-isothermal method with different heating rates to examine pyrolysis behavior of vacuum residue. Activation energy of the vacuum residue pyrolysis was obtained from linear fitting of TGA data with kinetic analysis methods such as Arrhenius method. Then distributed activation energy model (DAEM) was used to determine proper kinetic parameters for the non-isothermal pyrolysis of vacuum residue. The influences of various kinetic parameters on non-isothermal pyrolysis were also studied using nth-order DAEM method. Also the range of activation energies was represented by distribution function of the activation energy, f(E), for vacuum residue pyrolysis.