Bitumen radiation processing

Approaches earlier developed and tested on heavy crude oil and oil residua were applied to processing of still heavier and more viscous feedstock, such as bitumen. It is shown that yields of light fractions after radiation-thermal cracking (RTC) are higher than those obtained by other methods, including thermocatalytic cracking. Gasoline produced by RTC is noticeable for high concentrations of isoparaffins. An empiric equation is proposed to estimate maximum yields of isomers in gasoline fraction. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.