TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterization of vanadium in oil sands fluid petroleum coke using electron microscopy
AU - Zuliani, Jocelyn E.
AU - Miyata, Tomohiro
AU - Mizoguchi, Teruyasu
AU - Feng, Jing
AU - Kirk, Donald W.
AU - Jia, Charles Q.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) , the Consortium on Sustainable Materials (COSM-Japan) and the Chinese–NSF for funding for this project. As well, the authors would like to thank the Canadian Oil Sands industry for supply of raw oil sands fluid petroleum coke.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/8/15
Y1 - 2016/8/15
N2 - Naturally occurring vanadium is found in many heavy oils and bitumen, which are upgraded to synthetic crude oil via the coking process. During coking the vanadium concentrates in the solid heavy oil product, petroleum coke. However, potential releases of this toxic vanadium, either due to long term natural leaching from stockpiles or during combustion, presents environmental and health concerns. In this study, the vanadium present in petroleum coke was characterized using high resolution transmission electron microscope imaging with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Vanadium was observed in nanocrystalline mineral clusters, and is consistently associated with silicon, oxygen, sulfur, and iron. A distinct lattice structure is observed in these nanocrystals. This result is different from previous theories, which predicted that the coking process did not decompose the vanadyl porphyrins present in bitumen. By identifying the vanadium nanocrystals in petroleum coke, the long term fate of vanadium in petroleum coke stockpiles in reclaimed land may be predicted.
AB - Naturally occurring vanadium is found in many heavy oils and bitumen, which are upgraded to synthetic crude oil via the coking process. During coking the vanadium concentrates in the solid heavy oil product, petroleum coke. However, potential releases of this toxic vanadium, either due to long term natural leaching from stockpiles or during combustion, presents environmental and health concerns. In this study, the vanadium present in petroleum coke was characterized using high resolution transmission electron microscope imaging with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Vanadium was observed in nanocrystalline mineral clusters, and is consistently associated with silicon, oxygen, sulfur, and iron. A distinct lattice structure is observed in these nanocrystals. This result is different from previous theories, which predicted that the coking process did not decompose the vanadyl porphyrins present in bitumen. By identifying the vanadium nanocrystals in petroleum coke, the long term fate of vanadium in petroleum coke stockpiles in reclaimed land may be predicted.
KW - Extraction process
KW - Inorganic minerals
KW - Long-term leachability
KW - Oil sands petroleum coke
KW - Vanadium nanocrystals
KW - Vanadyl porphyrins
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U2 - 10.1016/j.fuel.2016.03.015
DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2016.03.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84961654808
SN - 0016-2361
VL - 178
SP - 124
EP - 128
JO - Fuel
JF - Fuel
ER -