RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOLIDS FORMATION, RESIDUUM CONVERSION, LIQUID YIELDS AND LOSSES DURING ATHABASCA BITUMEN PROCESSING IN THE PRESENCE OFA VARIETY OF CHEMICALS

Conditions were chosen for the batch processing of Athabasca bitumen s uch that approximately 8% of the feed was converted to solids under an atmosphere of nitrogen. When hydrogen or tetralin was used, the amoun t of solids formed was cut in half. The combination of hydrogen and te tralin decreased the amount of solids formed by one-half again. These conditions were used to study radical trapping reactions and hydrogen transfer under a variety of conditions using solids formation as a mea sure of reaction. None of the reagents used decreased solids formation significantly, and many increased the retrograde reaction. Correlatio ns between solids formation (2-25% of feed) and yields and conversions showed that CCR conversion and sulfur conversion were not correlated with solids formation but nitrogen and vanadium conversions were. Most significant was the finding that losses (yields of gases) were consta nt for the 29 runs, at constant residuum conversion. Gases must be for med as a result of the initial thermally induced carbon-to-carbon bond breaking step in order for the yield to be independent of solids form ation. Distillate yields decreased as solids formation increased.