EVALUATION OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF ASPHALTENES FROM THREE OFFSHORE BRAZILIAN BIODEGRADED HEAVY OILS

Asphaltenes fractions were extracted and purified from three heavy Brazilian oils. Their mass compositions of C, H, N, Ni and V were obtained from elemental analysis and S and O atomic percentages from EDS. The H/C ratios showed high degree of unsaturation, while the O atomic percentages indicated more pronounced biodegradation effects on two samples. Quantitative data on N, Ni, and V and semi-quantitative data on S were related to oils origins. The structural data of asphaltenes were explored by combining Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H...