Abstract: Technology for production of petroleum sulfonate via spray method was introduced.Based upon the characteristics of the petroleum fraction,the adoption of spray sulfonation technology increases the contacting surface area between the petroleum fraction and SO₃ substantially and results in a great improvement of the sulfonation efficiency.Contacting time for sulfonation reduces from several hours to several ten seconds and thus reduces the happening of over-sulfonation.Results of laboratory tests showed that as comparing with the conventional reaction kettle sulfonation,the spray sulfonation causes more than 3% increase of yield of the petroleum sulfonate and more than 10% increase of yield of the raffinate oil;while the yield of the acid residue decreases for more than 35%.Continuous process can be realized and the laboratory test results can be used as reference for industrial operation.

Key words: petroleum sulfonate, sulfonation, spray, industrialization