Latin American Applied Research 50(1): 1-6 (2020) 1 THE EFFECT OF COMPOSITION OF CONDENSED FRACTIONS’ MIXTURES OF A VENEZUELAN RESIDUE ON THE DELAYED COKING PRODUCTS QUALITY A. MEZA †‡ , A. NAVA † , J. VELÁZQUEZ ‡ , N. PÉREZ † and G. RINCÓN †§ † Laboratorio del Carbón y Residuales del Petróleo. Universidad Simón Bolívar. naperez@usb.ve ‡ Escuela de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Central de Venezuela. alejandra.meza@ucv.ve § Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral – FIMCBOR-ESPOL, Ecuador. grincon@espol.edu.ec Abstract−− The effect of the composition of resin and asphaltene on the quality of delayed coking prod- ucts was evaluated. 10 mixtures with a controlled composition of S.A.R.A. (Saturates, Aromatic, Resin, Asphaltene) fractions with high percentage of resin and asphaltene, obtained from a vacuum residue of Venezuelan crude commercially known as “Merey”, were processed in a laboratory scale delayed coking unit. The physic-chemical characteristics of the mix- tures and products (distilled and coke) were obtained. Results indicate that on increasing the resin and as- phaltene content, there is a decrease in volatile mate- rial content and an fixed carbon and ash increase. Metal and sulphur content was lower in coke from resin’ rich mixtures while it was higher in asphaltene’ rich mixtures. This showed the impact that the S.A.R.A composition of the feed has on the products quality. Keywords−− Delayed coking, S.A.R.A, Yield, Con- densable liquids, Coke. I. INTRODUCTION Delayed coking is the most commonly used thermal treat- ment for heavy and extra heavy crude in Venezuela as a process for deep conversion of crude which permits ob- taining higher commercial value products. This process is fed mainly by the short residue coming from the vac- uum distillation which is thermally treated and where two types of endothermic reactions take place: one involving cracking to obtain liquid and gas products and the other, polymerization-condensation in which coke as a solid product, is obtained (Nava, 2017). Previous works (Meza-Avila et al., 2016; Meza et al., 2018), showed the need to study the separately impact of the S.A.R.A fractions of the crude oil. on the yield and characteristics of the delayed coking products in general, and specifically in the case of Venezuela, as a narrow range of feed composition had been studied in the past (Linares, 2003; Requena et al., 2008; Salazar et al., 2015; Bello et al., 2006), that it is necessary to extend (Meza et al., 2018) . The detailed effect of these fractions in Venezuelan crude was shown in Meza-Avila et al. (2016) and Meza et al. (2018), indicating that more in-depth research on the fractions influence was needed to determine and show the possible synergy existing between the crude fractions through a feed composition controlling process, with a specific amount of each fraction within the mix fed to the reactor. The effect of the presence of aromatics has al- ready been established (Nava et al., 2017) and so the re- maining fractions, resins and asphaltenes, which are found in greater proportion in Venezuelan crude, are now evaluated. As a result, this research presents the evaluation of the effect of resin and asphaltene on the delayed cooking products quality (condensable liquids and coke). Ten mixtures with S.A.R.A fractions controlled com- position were processed; five resin rich and five asphal- tene rich. These fractions were obtained from a 16° API vacuum residue of Merey heavy crude from the east of Venezuela. Coking was done in a laboratory scale de- layed coking unit located in the Carbon and Petroleum Residue Laboratory at Simon Bolivar University, and the physic-chemical characteristics of the mixtures and con- densable liquid products and coke were obtained. The aim of this research is to propose improvements to the delayed coking process, with the use of a local sam- ple, by evaluating the behavior of Venezuelan typical res- idues through a more exhaustive study which, unlike pre- vious work, is an evaluation of the profile of the fractions content. This would allow the identification of tendencies that exist between the products quality and the resin and asphaltene composition in the feed. II. METHODS A. Feed preparation for the delayed coking process The preparation of the feed (mixtures) for the delayed coking process was done by varying the weight percent- ages of each one of the S.A.R.A. fractions. The fractions were obtained using the methodology put forward by Zerpa (2016) insuring that the absorbents were used im- mediately on completion of their activation process. Ten mixtures were prepared for the delayed coking process; five with high resin content and five with high asphaltene content following the composition seen in Table 1 (Nava, 2017) (= standard deviation). B. Laboratory scale delayed coking process The delayed coking was done in a laboratory scale unit used by Salazar et al. (2015), Meza-Avila et al. (2016) and Meza et al. (2018), with the size reactor modified to