Low-Sulphur Vacuum Gasoil of Western Siberia Oil: The Impact of Its Structural and Chemical Features on the Properties of the Produced Needle Coke

Abstract

The specific branches of industry utilize needle coke, a carbon form with a highly anisotropic structure. Searching for novel raw materials for its production is now rigorously studied. In the present work, we use low-sulfur gasoil for this purpose, namely its high-boiling fractions. We study their chemical and physicochemical parameters with the set of physicochemical and spectral methods. The data of FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopies with a phenomenological method (that allows assessing average electronic structure parameters) indicate that the gas oil of the West Siberian origin contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with 3–5 condensed benzene rings. The maximum amount of PAHs with molecular masses of 400–600 a.u. is contained in the fractions with boiling points higher than 450 °C. According to the data of polarized-light optical microscopy, the higher boiling point of the gasoil fraction the higher anisotropy of the produced coke. This occurs as a result of an increase in the amount of PAHs capable of condensation with the formation of a mesophase. Thus, low-sulfur gas oils from thermally processed West Siberian oil are promising raw materials for the production of needle coke in delayed coking processes.