Petroleum Residue:

Petroleum residues are the remaining fraction left after distillation of crude oil. The
heavy petroleum residues have the characteristics of high boiling point, high carbon residue
and high contents of heavy metals, sulphur and nitrogen. Thus, there is a great technology
need for deep conversion of these heavy petroleum residues into light and middle distillates
that can be further refined to vehicle fuels and raw chemical materials.[3] Generally, there are
two typical technical ways to process heavy oil in order to produce lighter oils based on
carbon rejection and hydrogen addition, respectively. This is associated with thermal or
catalytic thermal treatment, which includes mainly the visbreaking, residue fluid catalytic
cracking and coking represented by the delayed coking.[1]

Asphaltenes:
Asphaltenes are complex aromatic molecular mixture, is widely contained in crude oil,
residues of petroleum and coal processing. Today, asphaltenes are defined as the heaviest
components of petroleum fluids that are insoluble in light n-alkanes such as n-pentane (nC5) or
n-heptane (nC7) but soluble in aromatic such as toluene .Asphaltene is initially obtained from
crude oil by petroleum naphtha, n-pentane and n-heptane separation, it is generally defined by
the solubility characteristics rather than chemical structures.[1,4]

Resin:
Resin is a heavier fraction than aromatics and saturates. Resins are composed of fused
aromatic rings with branched paraffin and polar compounds. The resin fraction is soluble in light
alkanes such as pentane and heptane, but insoluble in liquid propane. The resins are adsorbed
on a solid such as alumina, clay, or silica and subsequently recovered by use of a more polar
solvent and the oils remain in solution. The resins often co-precipitate with the asphaltenes in
controlled propane deasphalting procedures.[4] The composition of the resins can vary
considerably and is dependent on the kind of precipitating liquid and on the temperature of the
liquid system. The resins are adsorbed on a solid such as alumina, clay, or silica and
subsequently recovered by use of a more polar solvent and the oils remain in solution.[5]

Wax:
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near
ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points
above about 40 °C, melting to give low viscosity liquids. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble
in organic, non-polar solvents. The commonly used method of separating wax from oil,
particularly separating wax from petroleum fractions, is solvent de-waxing, in which the wax
containing oil is chilled in the presence of a selective solvent for the oil and filtered.[6]