Title: Comparison of the effect of temperature on asphaltene destabilisation in light and heavy live oils

Authors: Saber Mohammadi; Fariborz Rashidi; Sayed Ali Mousavi-Dehghani; Mohammad-Hossein Ghazanfari

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, RIPI, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, 424 Hafez Ave, Tehran, 15875-4413, Iran ' Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, RIPI, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of temperature on asphaltene destabilisation (precipitation/aggregation) in live oils at elevated pressure conditions. Here, the asphaltene related experiments were performed using solid detection systems, high pressure microscope, and high pressure-high temperature filtration apparatuses in two Iranian light and heavy live oils with different characteristics and stability. The obtained results were interpreted in terms of asphaltene onset pressure, size distribution and average diameter of the aggregates, fractal analysis of the aggregates structures, and the amount of asphaltene precipitation. As well, the results of the experiments for both light and heavy oil samples were compared in detail. [Received: December 8, 2015; Accepted: June 3, 2016]

Keywords: asphaltene; destabilisation; temperature; light oil; heavy oil; fractal.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2017.087856

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2017 Vol.16 No.4, pp.342 - 362

Received: 08 Dec 2015
Accepted: 03 Jun 2016
Published online: 06 Nov 2017 *

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