Compositional analysis of deasphalted oils from Arabian crude and their hydrocracked products

The deasphalted oil (DAO) and its hydrocracked products were analyzed by gas chromatograph with an atomic emission detector (GC-AED), time-of-flight mass spectra (TOF-MS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to evaluate the product quality and reaction progress in addition to the yields of the products. Carbon GC-AED spectra revealed that carbon species distributions in distillate products were almost same regardless of their yields and reaction conditions. No sulfur species were found in gasoline and kerosene, while significant reduction of sulfur contents was found in gas oil (GO) according to the hydrocracking reaction temperature and liquid-volume hourly space velocity (LHSV). Vacuum gas oil (VGO) was also analyzed by GC, but it showed a large lump of low resolution. TOF-MS and XRD results indicated that the resid in the feed was cracked into smaller molecules in the product resid. These comprehensive analyses about feeds and products from various hydrocracking process could offer basic information for optimizing the process in industry.