processes Article Mechanistic Approach to Thermal Production of New Materials from Asphaltenes of Castilla Crude Oil Natalia Afanasjeva 1, Andrea González-Córdoba 2,* and Manuel Palencia 1 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Exact Science, Universidad del Valle, Cali 760020, Colombia;
[email protected] (N.A.);
[email protected] (M.P.) 2 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá 111321, Colombia * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +57-1-316-5000 (ext. 14322) Received: 16 August 2020; Accepted: 23 October 2020; Published: 12 December 2020 Abstract: Asphaltenes are compounds present in crude oils that influence their rheology, raising problems related to the extraction, transport, and refining. This work centered on the chemical and structural changes of the asphaltenes from the heavy Colombian Castilla crude oil during pyrolysis between 330 and 450 ◦C. Also, the development of new strategies to apply these macromolecules, and the possible use of the cracking products as a source of new materials were analyzed. The obtained products (coke, liquid, and gas) were collected and evaluated through the techniques of proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (1H and 13C NMR), elemental composition, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA) analysis, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A comparison of the applied methods showed that the asphaltene molecules increased the average size of their aromatic sheets, lost their aliphatic chains, condensed their aromatic groups, and increased their degree of unsaturation during pyrolysis. In the liquid products were identified alkylbenzenes, n-alkanes C9–C30, and n-alkenes.