REMOVAL OF NITROGEN COMPOUNDS FROM BRAZILIAN PETROLEUM SAMPLES BY OXIDATION FOLLOWED BY LIQUID-LIQUID EXTRACTION

This work reports liquid-liquid extraction of nitrogen compounds from oxidized and non-oxidized Brazilian petroleum samples. The experiments were accomplished in a laboratory-scale liquid-liquid apparatus in the temperature range of 303 K-323 K, using methanol, n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and their mixtures as extraction solvents, employing solvent to sample volume ratios of 1:2, 1:1 and 2:1, exploring up to three separation stages. Results show that an increase in temperature, solvent to oil ratio, and number of equilibrium stages greatly improves the nitrogen removal from the oxidized sample (from 2600 to 200 ppm). The employed oxidation scheme is thus demonstrated to be an essential and efficient step of sample preparation for the selective liquid-liquid removal of nitrogen compounds. It is shown that the use of mixtures of DMF and NMP as well their use as co-solvents with methanol did not prove to be useful for selective nitrogen extraction since great oil losses were observed in the final process.