Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2022 number 2

The currently widespread methods of processing fuel oils obtained during the primary separation of oil are complex multistage processes, including preliminary vacuum distillation and subsequent cracking of the resulting vacuum gas oils, as well as the oxidation of residual tar into bitumens. For small-scale industries, such processes are costly and, in some cases, unprofitable. The article proposes a technology for thermolytic processing of fuel oil over a tin-lead melt in a semi-continuous reactor. The main advantages of the proposed technology are low process temperature and pressure close to atmospheric, as well as almost complete elimination of the formation of carbon deposits on reactor walls. The reported results describe experiments on thermal cracking of fuel oil carried out according to two kinds of destructive distillation: the classical version, and the version involving a tin-lead melt. It is shown that during destructive distillation on a tin-lead melt, deeper cracking occurs in comparison with classical destructive distillation. The content of gasoline fraction (IPB-180 °С) and diesel fraction (180-360 °С) in thermal gas oil obtained by means of classical destructive distillation is higher than in thermal gas oil obtained by destructive distillation on tin-lead melt, while the content of fractions boiling above 360 °C is lower. The group composition, density and dynamic viscosity of thermal gas oils differ insignificantly. For thermal gas oil obtained over a tin-lead melt, a slight decrease in sulphur content is observed. Analysis of thermal gas oils for tin and lead showed their absence. Thermal gas oils have a high content of aromatic compounds, which makes them a promising raw material for needle coke production. Multiple analysis of the tin-lead alloy after the completion of the process showed that the alloy was free from mechanical impurities present in the fuel oil, it also did not contain coke released during thermolysis, and the mass of the alloy remained constant, which means that in this case the alloy plays the role of an effective heat carrier, which makes it possible to deepen fuel oil thermolysis.