Novel insight into structure and content of olefins in thermally cracked heavy oil and its saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes fractions determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy

The factors leading to olefinic hydrogen signal shielding in the 1 H NMR spectra of thermally cracked vacuum residue (VR) and its heavy fractions were revealed using a series of model compound systems, and the effect of olefinic hydrogen signal shielding on the determination of olefinic hydrogen content was elucidated. There were two main factors leading to the olefinic hydrogen signal shielding in the 1 H NMR spectra of olefins in heavy fractions, i.e. intramolecular and intermolecular. For the olefin itself in heavy fractions, the chemical shift of the olefinic hydrogen closest to the aromatic ring was in the aromatic region rather than the olefinic region due to the π-π conjugation effect between the double bond and the intramolecular aromatic ring. Notably, the response intensity of the olefinic hydrogen signal could be weakened or even disappear due to the suppressive effect of the intermolecular aromatic structures in other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while alkanes and monocyclic aromatics had little effect on the olefinic hydrogen signal response. Although the olefinic hydrogen signal was detected merely at about 5.30 ppm in the 1 H NMR spectra of heavy fractions, these olefinic structures may be predominantly of the R─CH═CH 2 type rather than the R─CH═CH─R′ type. More importantly, the measured olefinic hydrogen content of thermally cracked VR and its heavy fractions may be considerably lower than the actual content, with the measured content being only about 30–40 % of the actual content. This is mainly due to the weakening and disappearance of the olefinic hydrogen signal, coupled with the fact that the integral area of the possible olefinic hydrogen signal in the aromatic region was overlooked when calculating the total integral area of the olefinic hydrogen signal in the 1 H NMR spectrum.