Prediction of Water-atmospheric Residue Phase Equilibria Based on Detailed Structure Analysis for Developing High Temperature and High Pressure Water Upgrading Processes

Atmospheric residue fractions were characterized based on detailed structure analysis data obtained from petroleomics. The physical properties of each fraction were analyzed by applying the estimation method with molecular weight and specific gravity (Method 1) and by applying the group-contribution estimation method with the molecular structure data (Method 2). Vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) for water + atmospheric residue systems were measured at 603 K - 643 K and 2.0 - 10.2 MPa with a flow type apparatus and predicted using the Peng-Robinson equation. Average absolute relative deviations of predicted water content in the liquid phase were 25.4% and 9.9 % for Method 1 and Method 2, respectively, indicating that the group-contribution estimation method is more reliable.