Asphaltene deposition: A thermodynamic-colloidal model
Asphaltene deposition during petroleum production and processing is a very serious problem in many areas throughout the world. This dissertation concerns the development of a thermodynamic-colloidal model for predicting the onset of flocculation of asphaltenes in oil mixtures due to either changes in temperature, pressure, and composition or electrical phenomena. Given one experimental onset point for a crude oil, the model can predict the onset of asphaltene flocculation of the same oil with any other solvent or oil mixture, at any pressure and composition including that of the original reservoir fluid. The resin critical chemical potential is introduced as a property of each crude oil related to its asphaltene flocculation tendency and being only a function of temperature and of the nature of the asphaltene-resin micelles. For those oil mixtures from which flocculation is caused simply by flow, as apparently in primary oil production, the model can make predictions as to the velocity ranges where asphaltene flocculation can be avoided. Both the static and dynamic parts of the model are tested with the available experimental data on the onset of asphaltene flocculation and the results are encouraging. Furthermore, a simple, rapid, and precise method for determining the resin content of a crude utilizing high performance liquid chromatography was proposed and tested. Gel permeation chromatography was utilized to determine the molecular weight distributions of asphaltenes and resins derived from two different crude oils. A functional relationship has been demonstrated to exist between the asphaltene number average molecular weight (relative to polystyrene) and the carbon number of the paraffin flocculant used to separate the asphaltenes from the crude.
- Research Organization:
- Illinois Univ., Chicago, IL (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 7025759
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020300 -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
020400* -- Petroleum-- Processing
ASPHALTENES
ASPHALTS
BITUMENS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHROMATOGRAPHY
CONTROL
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLOCCULATION
FLOW RATE
FORECASTING
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEL PERMEATION CHROMATOGRAPHY
LIQUID COLUMN CHROMATOGRAPHY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MIXTURES
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE MODELS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLYMERS
PRECIPITATION
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
REFINING
RESINS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STATISTICAL MODELS
TAR
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMODYNAMIC MODEL