The key difference between asphaltene and paraffin is that asphaltene compounds contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms in the chemical structure, whereas the paraffins are alkanes containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms.
Asphaltene is a chemical compound that occurs in crude oil along with other components such as resins, aromatic hydrocarbons, and saturated hydrocarbons such as alkanes. Paraffins are alkanes, which are saturated hydrocarbons having the chemical formula CnH2n+2. Sometimes, asphaltene and paraffin occur together in organic deposits.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Asphaltene
3. What is Paraffin
4. Asphaltene vs Paraffin in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Asphaltene and Paraffin
What is Asphaltene?
Asphaltene is a chemical compound that occurs in crude oil along with other components such as resins, aromatic hydrocarbons, and saturated hydrocarbons such as alkanes. The name of this compound comes from its distillation residue having some asphalt-like properties.
Figure 01: General Structure for Asphaltene
Usually, the asphaltenes primarily contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, along with some trace amounts of vanadium and nickel. In asphaltene, the carbon to hydrogen ratio is typically 1;1.2, but it depends on the source of asphaltene. Moreover, this component mixture tends to show a molecular weight distribution of 400 u to 1500 u.
When considering the sources of asphaltene, heavy oils, oil sands, bitumen, and biodegraded oils tend to have very high concentrations of asphaltene compared to medium-API oils and light oils. However, asphaltene mixtures tend to impart a high viscosity to crude oils, which impacts production. Moreover, the different concentrations of asphaltene in different crude oil samples tends to create a myriad of production problems.
What is Paraffin?
Paraffins are alkanes, which are saturated hydrocarbons having the chemical formula CnH2n+2 (where n is a whole number). These are called hydrocarbons because they contain C and H atoms. All these atoms are linked to each other via single covalent bonds. Since there are no double or triple bonds, paraffins are saturated hydrocarbons.
Figure 02: Paraffin Wax
Furthermore, these compounds are a broad group of organic molecules. We can name them according to the number of carbon atoms and the side groups that they are comprised of. The smallest alkane is methane. In methane, a central carbon atom binds with 4 hydrogen atoms. The IUPAC nomenclature of paraffin is based on Greek prefixes.
All paraffins are colourless and odourless. The melting points and boiling points increase with the increase in the number of carbon atoms. Under standard temperature and pressure conditions, some of them are liquids, while some are gaseous compounds. This difference is due to their different boiling points. Moreover, alkanes show isomerism. A paraffin molecule may have structural isomerism or stereoisomerism according to its structure and spatial arrangement of the molecule.
What is the Difference Between Asphaltene and Paraffin?
Asphaltene and paraffin are organic components that occur in crude oil. The key difference between asphaltene and paraffin is that asphaltene compounds contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms in the chemical structure, whereas the paraffins are alkanes containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms. Asphaltene is useful as paving materials on roads, shingles for roofs and waterproof coatings on building foundations, whereas paraffin uses therapeutic uses, production of cold creams, bronzed oils, and makeup products, etc.
The following infographic summarizes the difference between asphaltene and paraffin in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Asphaltene vs Paraffin
Asphaltene and paraffin are organic components that occur in crude oil. The key difference between asphaltene and paraffin is that asphaltene compounds contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur atoms in the chemical structure, whereas paraffin is an alkane containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms.
Reference:
1. “What Is Paraffin and What Are Its Uses?” CUBII, 11 May 2021.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Possible asphaltene molecule” By Paginazero – “Bitumi e derivati” – corso di tecnologia chimica (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Paraffin” By Gmhofmann – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia