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ABSTRACT
There are few reports available detailing the electrical conductivity of heavy residual oils. The development of a model for the conductivity can lead to an increased understanding of the fundamental properties of such oils, and furthermore, conductivity is an important parameter for certain processing sequences. We have developed a method based on diluting the heavy oil with a variety of hydrocarbon solvents which sheds light on the conductivity mechanism involved. There is a profound difference in the results that were obtained with aliphatic and aromatic solvents: at 50% dilution, mixtures with aromatic solvents show conductivities at least 2 orders of magnitude greater than those found with the aliphatic solvents. A mechanism based on transfer of excess charge between overlapping w-orbitals of the polynuc1ear aromatic hydrocarbons which constitute the bulk of the heavy oil is discussed.