Effect of chemical dispersion on distribution of distillates cuts in various crude oil samples

The present paper reports on the distillation behavior of the neat and surfactants dispersed crude oils monitored through boiling point curves/ASTM curves. The surfactants used were cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as cationic, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as anionic, and Triton-X as neutral amphiphiles. Three crude oils including light (denoted as RCP-I), middle (denoted as RCN-II) and heavy oils (denoted as RCA-III) were studied using atmospheric pressure distillation. The distillation curves (the boiling temperature versus cumulative volume fraction distilled), at 10% (v/v) intervals, were constructed from the obtained results. The results revealed an increased volatility of the crudes in the presence of the surfactants and the samples yielded lighter products (gasoline and diesel range) when provided with surfactants. The dispersion of the RCA-III with SDS significantly increased the yield of light fraction to 58% and the yield of the residue decreased to 6%. The CTAB was effective in RCN-II crude which increased the yield of light fraction to 49%, and decreased the residue yield to 7%. The Triton X-100 also proved to be more effective in RCN-II crude and gave 48 and 6% yields of light and residue fractions, respectively.

Automated summary

This study investigates the distillation behavior of neat and surfactants dispersed crude oils using boiling point curves/ASTM curves. The presence of surfactants increases the volatility of the crude oils, resulting in lighter products.