From Coal-Heavy Oil Co-refining Residue to Asphaltene-Based Functional Carbon Materials

Abstract

Asphaltene-based carbon fiber, needle coke, and porous carbon nanosheets were synthesized using the extracted asphaltene from coal-heavy oil co-refining residue. Asphaltene with high average molecular weight and aromaticity is considered proper to be polymerized or crosslinked, and is a high-performing precursor to synthesize carbon materials. It can be transferred into pitch after pyrocondensation polymerization; the resultant asphaltenebased carbon fiber with a tensile strength of 0.92 GPa was obtained via spinning, preoxidization, and carbonization. While high graphitized needle coke was formed when asphaltene underwent thermal polycondensation, delayed coking, and carbonization, it provided a facile route to produce needle coke from asphaltene. A porous carbon nanosheet with a high surface area of 1717 m 2 /g and pore volume of 0.94 cm 3 /g was synthesized using asphaltene as carbon precursor, melamine as nitrogen resource, and molten salt as template; the porous carbon nanosheet showed high CO 2 adsorption amount and outstanding adsorption selectivity for CO 2 -N 2 and CO 2 -CH 4 . It indicated that asphaltene was an excellent precursor to prepare functional carbon materials for its adjustable molecular weight distribution, high aromaticity, controllable thermal condensation, and easy graphitization. It provided an effective strategy to tailor solid residue from coal and heavy oil co-refining and developed directional conversion or utilization of asphaltene.

Obtaining Nanoporous Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Networks by Cross-Linking Asphaltenes

“…The loss in H content could be attributed to the oxygenation of cyclic alkanes during cross-linking as suggested above in DRIFT analysis. The atomic ratio of C/H also increased from parent asphaltenes to the cross-linked ones, consistent with the literature . The results of elemental analysis also suggest the dehydrocondensation reaction.…”

“…The atomic ratio of C/H also increased from parent asphaltenes to the cross-linked ones, consistent with the literature. 32 The results of elemental analysis also suggest the dehydrocondensation reaction. The loss in N content was not significant, while the S fraction decreased remarkably.…”

Environmental Friendliness and High Performance of Multifunctional Tween 80/ZnO-Nanoparticles-Added Water-Based Drilling Fluid: An Experimental Approach

“…Shale oil production climbed to 2.81 billion barrels which represents approximately 63% of overall US crude oil production in 2019 . The demand of energy is continuously increasing; therefore, exploration and production companies are seeking novel ways to exploit the potential of unconventional hydrocarbons, such as heavy oil, gas hydrate deposit, , oil sand, coal bed methane, , tight gas-sand, − and oil and gas shales. , However, smectite/montmorillonite-rich shale is more susceptible to water in terms of its swelling, and it may raise problems of wellbore instability when drilling into the shale. − Notably, shale instability accounts for 90% of all global wellbore drilling problems. , Swelling in high montmorillonite content shale and environmental rehabilitation of drilling location are two major concerns that need to be addressed. , …”

Bitumen and asphaltene derived nanoporous carbon and nickel oxide/carbon composites for supercapacitor electrodes

“…Moreover, the smaller NiO crystal size in ACNS1 could be beneficial since it can provide higher specific surface area for charge storage. It should also be noted that most of the literature reported also apply 5–10% conductive carbon black to improve the conductivity of the electrodes 23 , 41 . In this work, we prepared electrodes without adding carbon black.…”

“…Recently, there has been a surge in the synthesis of novel carbon materials such as nanosheet, nanoporous carbon, etc. from fossil fuels including pitch, coal, and asphaltenes [22][23][24][25] . Bitumen and asphaltenes are rich in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which can be transformed into highly ordered carbon nanostructures including nanotubes and nanosheets.…”