John Nighswander

ASPHALTENIC CRUDE OIL CHARACTERIZATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF RESINS ON THE STABILITY OF ASPHALTENES

ABSTRACT High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Thin Layer Chromatographic (TLC) latroscan were used to characterize an asphaltenic stock tank oil (STO) from the North Sea. The whole STO was separated into saturates, aromatics, polars 1 (resins 1), polars 2 (resins 2) and asphaltene fractions. The separated resins (1) and the more polar resins (2), also termed asphaltene peptizing agents, were further characterized by HPLC in terms of their neutral, basic, pyrrolic and acidic components. Resins (1) and resins (2) were mixed in different proportions with whole (original) STO; the resulting mixtures were tested for asphaltene onsets of precipitation due to n-C5 injection at 25° C and 690 kPa. Results of these tests are presented and the observed trends are explained in terms of resins characters and/ or major constituents.

An experimental study of the effect of paraffinic solvents on the onset and bulk precipitation of asphaltenes

ABSTRACT Asphaltene onset concentration and bulk deposition were measured for a typical live reservoir oil titrated with n-C6H14, n-C5H12, n-C4H10, C3H8, C2H6, CH4 and CO2 at 100° C (212 ° F) and 29.9 MPa (4340 psia). The concentration of titrant at asphaltene onset was observed to decrease approximately in a linear fashion with decreasing molecular weight of the paraffinic solvent; CH4 did not induce any asphaltene precipitation. Bulk deposition experiments were performed using a solvent: oil volume ratio of 10:1; the results indicated that the weight percent of asphaltenes precipitated increased exponentially with decreasing molecular weight of the paraffinic solvents. More importantly, the asphaltene molecular weight showed a maximum for n-C4H10 precipitated asphaltenes. Possible explanations for this unusual result are presented.