The Evaluation of Two Local Petroleum Residues

Abstract

Two vacuum residues were delivered from two different petroleum refineries, one from Suez Petroleum Company and the second from Alexandria Petroleum Company. They were subjected to solvent extraction using n-pentane, n-heptane, and ethyl acetate. The process of solvent extraction aims to separate maltenes and asphaltenes. The maltenes were further subjected to liquid chromatography (column chromatograph) in order to separate them into saturates and aromatics (mono-, di-, and poly-) and resins. The saturates that were separated from the maltenes of the two vacuum residues with different solvents were studied by gas chromatography in order to determine how much n-paraffins and cyclo-paraffins they contained.