Acid and base fractions from petroleum vacuum resids with no detectable (by visible spectrophotometry) quantities of porphyrinic Ni or V complexes were hydrotreated under various conditions to determine if significant amounts of porphyrinic metals were released, via disassociation or other means, upon hydrotreating. No significant quantities were observed, thereby indicating that nonporphyrinic metals were not simply associated, complexed or otherwise masked (in terms of visible spectrophotometric response) porphyrinic metal complexes. However, it is possible that hydrotreating was simply not effective in breaking up these associates and/or that some porphyrinic forms of metal were in fact released but were rapidly destroyed by hydrotreating. In addition, three liquid chromatographic (LC) separation methods were sequentially applied to Cerro Negro (Orinoco belt Venezuelan heavy crude) >700{degree}C resid in an effort to separate and concentrate the metal complexes present. Nonaqueous ion exchange chromatography was used initially to separate the resid into acid, base and neutral types. Two concentrates containing 19,500 and 13,500 ppm total V, or an estimated 19 and 13 wt % V-containing compounds respectively, were obtained. The degree of enrichment of Ni compounds obtained was significantly lower. By visible spectrophotometry, using vanadyl etioporphyrin as a standard, each of the concentrates contained near a more »1:1 ratio of porphyrinic:nonporphyrinic V complexes. Analogous separation behavior for porphyrinic versus nonporphyrinic metal forms was observed throughout much of the work, thereby suggesting that a comparable diversity of structures existed within each general class of metal compounds. The generally wide dispersion of both Ni and V over the LC separation scheme suggests a structural variety of metal complexes that is comparable to that observed for other heteroatoms (N, S, O) in petroleum.
