Hydrothermal Upgrading of Bitumen Using Glycerol as Hydrogen Donors

• 1、State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

Abstract：A comparative study of bitumen upgrading was performed in a tubular batch reactor by using pyrolysis and hydrothermal techniques with and without glycerol. Effects of water, glycerol and water/oil ratio on bitumen upgrading were investigated. The results showed that at 673K, compared to the pyrolysis upgrading of bitumen, the presence of water could promote the decomposition of the bitumen and inhibit coke formation, but in the lower 1:1 water/oil ratio this effect was small. The increase in the water/oil ratio favors to reduce the yield of asphalt, but did not inhibit coke formation, which may be related with the increase in the pressure of system to promote the polymerization of bituminous coking nuclear radicals. In the presence of glycerol, compared to the first two treatments, the presence of glycerol under hydrothermal condition greatly facilitated the decomposition of bitumen, and effectively inhibited the formation of coke to obtain more upgrading product. Finally, the mechanism of upgrading bitumen with glycerol was also discussed.

Keywords： Environmental science bitumen glycerin hydrothermal upgrading