The acidic constituents of petroleum are called naphthenic acids. The basic process for the isolation of these acids from petroleum involves extraction of the oil with an alkali and acidification of the aqueous extract with a mineral acid to liberate the organic acids. This product contains not only carboxyllc acids, but also significant amounts of phenols and hydrocarbons. The name "naphthenic acids" was suggested long ago by Markownikoff (2), because the early investigation of these acids indicated that they are a mixture of alicyclic acids. Subsequent work showed that these acids do not consists entirely of alicyclic acids but also contain straightchain and branched-chain acids, yet the name naphthenic acids is still in use for the total acidic constituents of petroleum The total acididy of crude oil varies from one field to another. for example, acidities as low as 0.03% have been reported for some crudes (Iraky oil) and as high as 3% for others (Southern California oil) . However, Schmitz (3) reported a very interesting observation. He found that although the acidity of crude oils varies from one o i l to the other, most of them have negligible amounts of acid in the gasoline and the heavy lubricating oil fractions;
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:580417 |
| Date | January 1965 |
| Creators | Khodair, Ahmed Ismail Abdel-Meguid |
| Publisher | University of Plymouth |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1802 |
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