Cleavage of Side Chains on Thiophenic Compounds by Supercritical Water Treatment of Crude Oil Quantified by Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography with Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detection

Cleavage of Side Chains on Thiophenic Compounds by Supercritical Water Treatment of Crude Oil Quantified by Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography with Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detection

Type	Journal Article
Author	Yuko Kida
Author	Adam G. Carr
URL	http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ef5015956
Publication	Energy & Fuels
Date	September 22, 2014
Abstract	Describes application of two-dimensional gas chromatography with sulfur chemiluminescence detection to explore the changes in alkylated thiophenes, benzothiophenes (BTs), and dibenzothiophenes (DBTs) during supercritical water (SCW) upgrading of Arabian Heavy crude oil. SCW treatment of heavy crude oil has a number of important effects: (1) The amount of BTs and DBTs in the distillate range increase, primarily due to cracking of heavier compounds. (2) Most of the long side chains on the thiophenes, BTs, and DBTs crack to form the corresponding thiophenic compounds with shorter side chains. (3) A small amount of the alkylated thiophenes undergo ring closure to form BTs during SCW treatment, and a small amount of the alkylated BTs appear to form DBTs in a similar way. Model compound studies on hexylthiophenes confirm that SCW cleaves alkyl chains bound to thiophenes.