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Mesophase Formation in Heavy Oil University of Alberta Mesophase Formation in Heavy Oil by Seyed Reza Bagheri A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering ©Seyed Reza Bagheri Fall 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. In Memory of my Father, Hossein Bagheri Abstract Coke formation is a major problem in the petroleum industry because of its effect on liquid yield, catalyst deactivation, and fouling of reactor internals and downstream vessels. Carbonaceous mesophase is a liquid crystalline phase which forms during cracking of heavy oil, as a subset of coke. A novel hot-stage reactor was designed and built to allow the in situ observation of mesophase formation at operating conditions of industrial reactors. The reactor was equipped with a magnetic stirrer to allow the addition of catalyst particles. The effect of cooling and depressurization on the formation and growth of carbonaceous mesophase in petroleum vacuum residue was studied using this reactor. The results showed that cooling below the cracking temperature at constant pressure can stop the formation and growth of mesophase by stopping chemical reactions. On the other hand, depressurization to atmospheric pressure, while maintaining reaction temperature, can promote the formation and growth of mesophase. The effect of stirring on mesophase formation was also investigated. Stirring can result in a bimodal distribution of size of mesophase domains in which very large mesophase regions coexist with a large number of small mesophase domains. Catalyst gives a delay in the onset of mesophase formation by its chemical activity, and a decrease in the amount of bulk mesophase regions by suppressing the coalescence of smaller mesophase domains as a physical effect. The results showed catalyst is less effective at higher catalyst concentrations due to the agglomeration of its particles. Mesophase formation was studied by a depolarized light scattering technique. A mechanism for mesophase formation in pitches has been suggested based on the evaluation of the previous models for mesophase formation with the scattering results. The results suggest that mesophase formation is a not a phase separation or nucleation process, but the homogeneous self-assembly of planer aromatic molecules into clusters and finally spherical submicron domains that coalesce to form the final micron-scale mesophase spheres. The role of asphaltenes in mesophase formation suggests that asphaltenes are a more aggregated phase in comparison to maltenes at high temperatures. Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Murray R. Gray, Dr. William C. McCaffrey, and Dr. John M. Shaw who supported me throughout my doctoral program with their patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. It would not have been possible to write this doctoral thesis without the help and support of these kind people. One simply could not wish for a better or friendlier supervisor. Special thanks also to all my graduate friends, especially group members; Kasra Nikooyeh and Dr. Arash Karimi, for sharing the literature and invaluable assistance. I would also like to thank Dr. Suzanne Kresta and Dr. John Nychka for their comments, ideas and suggestions. I thank Walter Boddez, Richard Cooper, and Les Dean for their technical assistance throughout my experiments. I thank Tuyet Lee and Mildred Becerra for the technical assistance in the lab. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support by UOP. Finally, I like to thank my mother (Soudabeh) and brother (Ramtin) for their support, encouragement, and endless love throughout the duration of my studies. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 1.1. Research objectives ....................................................................................................... 4 1.2. Thesis outline................................................................................................................. 5 1.3. References...................................................................................................................... 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................... 8 2.1. Heavy oil........................................................................................................................ 8 2.2. Characteristics of heavy oil ........................................................................................... 9 2.2.1. Asphaltenes ........................................................................................................... 10 2.3. Thermal cracking........................................................................................................ 13 2.3.1. Hydroconversion ................................................................................................... 14 2.3.2. Hydroprocessing reactors....................................................................................... 14 2.3.3. Coke formation...................................................................................................... 16 2.4. Liquid crystals............................................................................................................. 20 2.4.1. History .................................................................................................................. 21 2.4.2. Director vector in liquid crystals............................................................................. 21 2.4.3. Types of liquid crystals.......................................................................................... 22 2.4.4. Phases of liquid crystals......................................................................................... 23 2.5. Polarized light microscopy .......................................................................................... 25 2.5.1. Principles of polarized light microscopy................................................................. 25 2.6. Carbonaceous mesophase............................................................................................ 30 2.6.1. History .................................................................................................................. 30 2.6.2. Mesophase formation............................................................................................. 30 2.6.3. Mesophase texture ................................................................................................. 32 2.6.4. Molecular structure of mesophase .......................................................................... 35 2.6.5. Mesophase versus traditional liquid crystals ........................................................... 36 2.6.6. Suggested mechanisms of mesophase formation..................................................... 36 2.6.7. Effect of additives and catalyst on mesophase formation......................................... 39 2.6.8. Solubility of mesophase......................................................................................... 40 2.6.9. Coke versus mesophase.......................................................................................... 41 2.6.10. Limits of mesophase detection ............................................................................... 41 2.7. References.................................................................................................................... 42 3. HOT-STAGE REACTOR DESIGN ................................................. 53 3.1. Introduction................................................................................................................. 53 3.2. Preceding work............................................................................................................ 54 3.2.1. Experimental limitations........................................................................................ 55 3.3. Transmission versus reflective microscopy................................................................. 56 3.4. Designing the hot-stage reactor................................................................................... 58 3.4.1. Simulation results .................................................................................................. 59 3.5. Hot-stage reactor......................................................................................................... 61 3.5.1. Stirrer.................................................................................................................... 68 3.5.2. Set-up for the continuous system............................................................................ 73 3.6. References...................................................................................................................
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