An improved method for the determination of asphaltene contents in residual oils by dual wavelength spectrophotometry has been developed. Contents of n-heptane or n-pentane asphaltene can be determined from absorbances of suspended sample solutions at 750 and 800nm. Effects of sample size, particle size of asphaltene and temperature on the absorbance of sample solution were investigated. This method can be applied to a great variety of residual oils such as atmospheric residue, vacuum residue, hydrocracked or thermally cracked residue and bitumens. Time required for the determination of aspaltenes was greatly reduced, using a full automatic asphaltene analyzer (COSMO APD-200A). The relative standard deviation was less than 4%, and the correlation coefficient more than 0.995 proved that the dual wavelength method well correlates with ASTM and IP methods, respectively.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.