Cracking of Maya Crude Asphaltenes

Cracking of Maya crude asphaltenes was carried out in a batch reactor at the following reaction conditions: temperature of 380–410°C, total pressure of 2 MPa, and asphaltenes/catalyst ratio of 5 g/g using NiMo commercial catalyst. n-hexadecane was used to keep asphaltenes dispersed and reaction time ranged from 0 to 60 min. The products were lumped into four fractions: asphaltenes, maltenes, gases, and coke. A kinetic model assuming pseudo–first-order parallel reactions was used to fit the experimental data.