Impact of bitumen composition on empirical properties

In recent years, there has been a further development of refining technology, which make it possible to better use of crude oil, which also has a major impact on the quality of bitumen. Most European refineries, of course, are processing, for reasons of the resale of petroleum products, especially petroleums suitable for the recovery of light and middle fractions. Therefore, light petroleums are required, with low yields of heavy fractions, which are highly economically and in dispositions efficient for processors on the petroleum market. Emphasis is placed on the sulfur content, the paraffin content is no longer the most important aspect. Less important from the perspective of the refinery is the content and the ratio of asphaltenes and maltenes. There is no doubt that we will have to change our view on petroleum products. Their availability will continue to decline, their price, on the other hand, is likely to grow in relation to falling supplies of resources. Therefore, the view of the bitumen must be changed. The most common way of production of PG bitumen is vacuum distillation, which is carried out in such a way that the vacuum distillation residue satisfies it´s properties bitumen requirements for the relevant penetration.

Amorphous TiO2 and SiO2 Modified Alumina as Catalyst Support for Hydroprocessing of Maya Crude Oil Heavy Fractions

A series of aluminas modified with 3-15 wt% S102 (AMASAs) and 2-9 wt% TiO2 (AMATAs) were prepared by a deposition and/or coprecipitation methods. The pore size distribution was varied by means of a pH-swing procedure where alternating pH acid-alkaline values generated 100-200 Å pores, particularly in the AMASAs case. However, the incorporation of TiO 2 in the AMATAs even after the pH-swing procedure results in a pore size and volume decrease- The degree of TiO 2 reduction is much higher in AMATAs obtained by deposition than those obtained by coprecipitation. The use of AMASAs as catalyst supports of 2.4 wt% Ni and 8.8 wt% Mo in the hydroconversion of a vacuum distillation residue brings about 1.5 times higher conversion to lighter fractions in comparison with a commercial alumina-based catalyst. AMATA-based catalyst shows similar activity and selectivity to the commercial catalyst. However, the presence of TiO2 (6 wt%) considerably increases the N and V removal, and decreases the formation of sediments.