Impact of Liquid Composition and Asphaltene Properties on Asphaltene Aggregation Using Interaction Energies

An interaction energy model is employed to discern the roles of liquid composition and asphaltene properties on asphaltene stability. The model determines Lifshitz‐van der Waals (LW) and acid‐base (AB) for two asphaltenes of A and B types with different polarities and synthetic oils with different n...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering & technology 2021-08, Vol.44 (8), p.1488-1495
Main Authors: Nategh, Mahshid, Mahdiyar, Hojjat, Malayeri, M. Reza, Unz, Simon, Beckmann, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agglomeration
Asphaltene aggregation
Asphaltenes
Crude oil fouling
Heat exchanger fouling
Interaction energy
Surface energy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:An interaction energy model is employed to discern the roles of liquid composition and asphaltene properties on asphaltene stability. The model determines Lifshitz‐van der Waals (LW) and acid‐base (AB) for two asphaltenes of A and B types with different polarities and synthetic oils with different nC7 volume fractions. The results indicate that the liquid loses its solubility with increased nC7 volume fraction, due to the reduction in its electron donor component. Moreover, at the very beginning of nC7 addition, both asphaltenes show a similar resistance against aggregation, due to the similar rates of change in their LW and AB interaction energies. However, at latter stages of nC7 addition, the two asphaltenes tend to have different precipitation propensities, which is consistent with the results of UV‐vis measurements. According to the interaction energy model, the role of nC7 in the reduction of asphaltene solubility is justified with the reduction in the basic power of the mixture. Asphaltene with stronger polar interaction between its components acts stronger against asphaltene‐liquid polar interaction and outweighs it at lower nC7 fractions.
ISSN:0930-7516
1521-4125
DOI:10.1002/ceat.201900455