Effect of Hydrogen-Donor of Heavy Crude Oil Catalytic Aquathermolysis in the Presence of a Nickel-Based Catalyst

The transformations of oil components from the Zyuzeevskoye field during catalytic aquathermolysis in the presence of a nickel-containing catalyst precursor and hydrogen donors were studied. It was found that the yield of gasoline and diesel fractions increased by more than 36% in the case of catalytic aquathermolysis in the presence of tetralin. The maximum conversion of asphaltenes was achieved with a simultaneous slowing down of coke formation by four times. The calculation of the structural-group parameters of initial asphaltenes and the products of thermal cracking and catalytic aquathermolysis was made, and the hypothetical construction of their molecular structures was proposed. It was established that the phase composition, ratio, and morphology of nickel catalysts after catalytic aquathermolysis (CA) and catalytic aquathermolysis with tetralin (CA+T) depend on the amount of "free" hydrogen and are represented by Ni0.96S and Ni9S8.