Kinetic study on the thermal degradation of heavy oil in presence of SBA-15 containing aluminum and cerium

ABSTRACT

In research for materials that can be applied in processing heavy oil (petroleum), this work proposes to synthesize mesoporous heterogeneous catalysts, type SBA-15, with the addition of cerium metal and aluminum. These catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron micrographs coupled to energy dispersive spectrometry, spectroscopy in the infrared region by Fourier transform, N₂ adsorption and desorption and thermal analysis-thermogravimetry. Thermal tests were performed to evaluate the thermal and catalytic degradation process with a sample of heavy oil (°API = 14). Through the non-isothermal kinetic model of Ozawa Flynn Wall (OFW) some parameters for determining the apparent activation energy of decomposition were obtained. The petroleum with 12% of Ce₅Al₅₀SBA-15 showed a catalytic activity for this material. It has been seen that there was a decrease in the Ea in model free of the order from 89.0 to 104.9 kJ mol⁻¹ in α = 50% ± 10%, and it was repeated from the first percentage until the last showing performance of Ce₅Al₅₀SBA-15 as a catalyst.

KEYWORDS:

• catalysis
• heavy oil
• kinetic model
• mesoporous materials
• thermal degradation