Open Access  Subscription Access

Maltene fractions of Agbabu bitumen exudate analysed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometery revealed that the chemical compositions were similar to compounds of conventional petroleum. Specifically, saturated hydrocarbons (alkanes), alicyclic hydrocarbon (cycloparaffin), unsaturated hydrocarbons (alkenes), aromatic hy-drocarbons and nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen (NSO) compounds, which are the notable constituents of petrole-um, were all identified in the exudate. The proportions of the constituents in the bitumen were 44.59 % cyclop-araffin, 28.61 % alkanes, 3.47 % monoaromatic hydrocarbons, 6.44 % alkenes, 3.23 % nitrogen compounds, 1.95 % sulphur compounds and 4.27 % oxygen compounds. The composition compared favourably to the resp-ective percent ranges in conventional crude oil, i.e. normal alkanes (15 - 60 %), cycloparaffins (30 - 60 %), aro-matics (3 - 30 %), nitrogen (1 - 2 %), oxygen (0.1 - 1.5 %), sulphur (0.2 - 0.5 %). However, the percentage co-mposition of the NSO compounds was higher than found in conventional petroleum. To serve as refinery feed-stock, the exudate must be subjected to hydrogenation to remove the polar (NSO) compounds.