Separation and Characterization of Olefin/Paraffin in Coal Tar and Petroleum Coker Oil

Hongxing Ni, Chang Samuel Hsu, Chao Ma, Quan Shi,*, and Chunming Xu

State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, People’s Republic of China 

Petro Bio Oil Consulting, Tallahassee, Florida 32312, United States 

Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32310, United States

Corresponding Author *Telephone: +1-850-410-6684 (C.S.H.); +86-10-8973-3738 (Q.S.). E-mail: chsu@fsu.edu (C.S.H.); sq@cup.edu.cn (Q.S.).

DOI:10.1021/ef400470v

Keywords: Carbon; Chromatograghy; Coal; Hydrocarbons; Lipids 

Abstract: We have investigated and established a preparative method of using a solid-phase extraction cartridge containing Ag⁺-exchange resin (Ag⁺-SPE) for separating olefins and paraffins in the saturate fractions of coal tar and petroleum coker oil. The successful separation of paraffins and olefins was confirmed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC− MS). Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was applied to determine the olefin structures for olefin-type distributions. None or negligible amounts of iso-α-olefins were detected by 1H NMR in the coal tar but were found significant in the coker oil. Gas chromatography coupled field ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC−FI-TOF MS) was employed to determine the molecular distribution of paraffins and olefins. With separate paraffin and olefin fractions, the differentiation between isomers, such as monocycloparaffins versus monoolefins, can be made.