Two-dimensional solubility parameter mapping of heavy oils

The solubility and insolubility of heavy oils and their fractions in dilute mixtures with various solvents were used to characterize heavy oil interactions. A two-dimensional solubility parameter, developed for the selection of solvents for organic polymers, was found to group all the solvents for each heavy oil fraction in polygon areas when the complexing solubility parameter component was plotted against the field force solubility parameter component. All fractions of Cold Lake vacuum residua, except for the saturate fraction, form concentric solubility areas. Therefore, in going in the direction of decreasing aromaticity from coke to asphaltenes to resins to aromatics, all solvents for the previous fraction in the series are also solvents for all subsequent fractions in the series. As a result, asphaltenes can be precipitated, but not extracted, from heavy oils. This is attributed to the interaction among polynuclear aromatics being the dominate interaction in petroleum that causes insolubility in hydrocarbon liquids. However, the paraffinic chains on the same petroleum molecules limit their solubility in highly complexing liquids. In contrast, even vacuum gas oils from the Exxon Donor Solvent coal liquefaction process are insoluble in aromatic liquids but soluble in moderately complexing liquids because of hydrogen bonding, resulting from oxygen functionality. Hydrotreating of these coal derived vacuum gas oils reduces their oxygen functionality and increases their solubility areas so that they become compatible with petroleum liquids.