A KINETIC STUDY OF THE SULPHURIZATION OF RESIDUAL ASPHALTS

Abstract

The kinetics of the sulphurization reaction of residual asphalts were investigated at temperatures of 220^°−250^°C and reaction time of 1 hr. The apparent reaction order varied from 1.40−3.50 for the range of temperature studied. The maximum reaction order was obtained at 24O^°C which appeared to be the optimum reaction temperature. The apparent kinetic rate parameters estimated for the sulphurization reactions were activation energy of 99.5 kJ/mol and a frequency factor of 15.48 × 10⁸. The rate parameters show some good agreement with other work reported in the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Residual asphalts
• Sulphurization
• Kinetic analysis