During this time period work proceeded in two main areas, the performance and analysis of petroleum asphaltene diffusional uptake experiments at 325 C and the preparation and testing of some new carbon based catalysts. In the first area, we performed studies of the diffusion controlled uptake of petroleum asphaltenes into a porous carbon catalyst at 325 C. The experiments were performed under an inert He atmosphere using 1-methylnaphthalene as a solvent. These purpose of these experiments was to extend our previous data which was taken and reported in the prior semi-annual report. These previous experiments were performed only up to a temperature of 250 C. A comparison between the experimental data and model simulated data showed that the mathematical model satisfactorily fitted the adsorptive diffusion of the petroleum asphaltenes onto the porous carbon at 325 C. Comparing with previous results, the adsorption constant continued to decrease with an increase in temperature for the petroleum asphaltene/1-methylnaphthalene system. Also during this time period, some carbon catalyst supports were prepared in our laboratory and several sets of data were obtained in adsorption-diffusion uptake experiments using a petroleum asphaltene with toluene as solvent. These data are presented in this report, although, complete fitting of …

During this past six months we continued our ongoing studies of the diffusion controlled uptake of coal and petroleum asphaltenes into a porous carbon catalyst. Toluene was used as the solvent for experiments at 20 C and 75 C while 1-methylnaphthalene was the solvent for the higher temperature experiments at 100 C, 150 C and 250 C. All runs were made at a pressure of 250 psi (inert He gas). Experiments were performed at 20 C and 75 C, for the petroleum asphaltene/toluene system. For the coal asphaltene/toluene system, experiments were performed at 75 C. Experiments were performed at 100 C, 150 C and 250 C for the coal asphaltene/1-methylnaphthalene system. A comparison between the experimental data and model simulated data showed that the mathematical model satisfactorily fitted the adsorptive diffusion of both the coal and petroleum asphaltenes onto a porous activated carbon. The adsorption constant decreases with an increase in temperature for both, the coal asphaltene/1-methylnaphthalene system as well as the petroleum asphaltene/toluene system. It was found that the adsorption constant for the coal asphaltene/toluene system at 75 C was much higher than that of the petroleum asphaltene/toluene system at the same temperature providing evidence of the greater affinity …