Isolation and Structure Determination of Certain Acidic Components from California Petroleum

Abstract

The acidic constituents of petroleum are called naphthenic acids. The basic process for the isolation of these acids from petroleum involves extraction of the oil with an alkali and acidification of the aqueous extract with a mineral acid to liberate the organic acids. This product contains not only carboxylic acids, but also significant amounts of phenols and hydrocarbons. The name "naphthenic acids" was suggested long ago by Markownikoff (2), because the early investigation of these acids indicated that they are a mixture of alicyclic acids. Subsequent work showed that these acids do not consist entirely of alicyclic acids but also contain straight - chain and branched-chain acids, yet the name naphthenic acids is still in use for the total acidic constituents of petroleum.

Date of Award	1965
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth