NMR analysis of cracking products of asphalt and assessment of catalyst performance

This paper reports 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of some crackates obtained from asphalt cracking in a micro autoclave under a pool of nitrogen. The cracking was carried out in the presence of Zeolite Socony Mobil #5 (HZSM-5) and locally cheap and readily available clay i.e. Utimanzai Clay (UTIMAC) as catalysts. The crackates obtained in case of each run was analyzed by 13C NMR spectrophotometer using CDCl3 as dissolving solvent and tetramethyl silane (TMS) as internal standard. The 13C NMR data was used to assess the extent of hydrocracking and degree of branching in crackates from asphalt .The results indicate that the cheap local catalyst used has comparable suitability with the conventional expensive catalyst in terms of asphalt cracking and its conversion to light products enriched with bulk n-alkane configurations.