⚫ New preprint: Heavy Oil Without Coke — Removing Asphaltenes Before Coking with Vacuum Separation and TEGA
Between 15 and 30 million tonnes of petroleum coke lie at the Venezuelan port of Jose, and more is added every day. The preprint attacks the cause of the pile: the asphaltenes of heavy oil that turn into coke. ARBOK-VC separates the light fractions under deep vacuum at 1–2.5 kWh per tonne, and the heavy phase is passed over TEGA, where asphaltenes and the vanadium and nickel bound in them adsorb on the graphitic surface. Each percentage point of additional yield is 10 kg of usable oil per tonne of heavy oil at a TEGA dose of 0.1–0.5%. The preprint closes with a 2-series R&D programme on real Orinoco residue.
Authors: Michael Vischmidt, Dmitry Ponomarenko, Alexander Nikulin, PhD. ARBOK Strategic Research Institute. License CC BY 4.0.