Study On The Reduction Of Asphaltene By Intermetallic SbSn

Intermetallic compounds have many outstanding properties, such as mechanics properties, catalytic properties and chemical stability, so there are more and more intermetallic compounds being developed and applied as new functional materials and structural materials. It will impel modern science and technology greatly. Now the research of intermetallic compound has become an important part of the new material field. Especially it is found that the intermetallic SbSn has the properties which can lower the amount of sulfur compounds, heavy metals, and asphaltene contained in petroleum. This study was based upon the research to lower the amount of asphaltene in petroleum for upgrading. The study in this paper include the preparation of intermetallic SbSn synthesized using smelting and mechanical alloying, then research on the reduction of asphaltene, the analysis of the content of sulfur and heavy metal nickel and vanadium after reduction of asphaltene by intermetallic SbSn. At the same time, the mechanism of removal of sulfur, nickel and vanadium by intermetallic SbSn was discussed. The paper also researched on the cleaning of intermetallic SbSn. The results showed that: (1) Under the same experiment condition, the result of experiment showed that the intermetallic SbSn smelted combined with fast cooling was superior to the intermetallic SbSn smelted combined with slowly cooling to reduce asphaltene contained in simulated system. The intermetallic SbSn smelted with fast cooling also was superior to the intermetallc SbSn synthesized by using mechanical alloying to reduce asphaltene contained in simulated system. (2) The experiments of reduction of asphaltene from petroleum by intermetallic SbSn smelted combined with fast cooling were carried out. The factors including surfactant and the content of water in the emulsified oil which effect on the result of reduction of asphaltene were studied. The asphaltene could be reduced 20% by intermetallic SbSn with fast cooling when the petroleum was emulsified by a water-in-oil surfactant. The content of the surfactant was 0.1%~0.2% and the water of the emulsion was 35%~40%. (3) The petroleum which reduced of asphaltene by intermetallic SbSn was found that the heavy metal nickel and vanadium was reduced more than 60%, the concentration of sulfur was reduced about 15% under normal temperature and pressure. Mechanism of removal of sulfur nickel and vanadium by intermetallic SbSn was proposed: sulfur and organometallic in the molecule of asphaltene being adsorbed on the defect sites of intermetallic SbSn surface in nanoscale region. The bonds between sulfur, organometallic and asphaltene will be broken by vibrational or rotational force for destruction. At the same time, the structure of asphaltene will be broken. (4) Intermetallic SbSn could be regenerated through cleaning with toluene. The active sites of intermetallic surface could be mostly recovered.