Experimental Investigation of Residence Time Effect on Formation of Asphaltene Deposition

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Semnan University, Iran

2 Petroleum Research Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Formation of asphaltene deposition in reservoirs during primary production and enhanced oil recovery techniques; such as, gas injection, especially carbon dioxide, is a devastating problem  which occurs in many oil fields in the world. The experimental studies to predict the formation of asphaltene precipitation to be necessary to avoid possible irreparable problems resulting from its formation in the reservoir and eventually it will provide access to the best recovery efficiency. As a result of the technical and economic importance and the necessity of studying and understanding the operating conditions of the formation of asphaltene deposition in reservoirs is inevitable. In this paper, the thermodynamic behavior of fluids in oil processing unit has been studied at Sahand University of Oil and Gas Research Institute, which has the capability of testing high temperatures and pressures. The amount of asphaltene precipitation has initially been saturated by the injection of carbon dioxide into the porous media (sand pack), and then the amount of asphaltene precipitation pressurized with oil sample, at constant  pressure and temperature, but various residence times. And then to investigate the effect of temperature and pressure and Oil composition at residence time, respectively, the test is repeated at lower temperature and higher pressure and oil change from Asmari reservoir oil  to Paydarshrq oil reservoir. At a constant temperature and pressure with  an increase in the residence time, more of asphaltene deposition  has been formed on filter paper. At higher pressures and lower temperatures, and changing the oil samples also increased the amount of asphaltene with increasing residence time.
 

Keywords

References

[1]. Dubey S. T. and Waxman M. H., “Asphaltene adsorption and desorption from mineral surfaces”, SPE Reservoir Engineering, Vol. 6, Issue 03, pp. 389– 395, 1995.##
[2]. Akbarzadeh K., Alboudwarej H., Svrcek W. and Yarranton H. W., “A generalized regular solution model for asphaltene precipitation from n-alkane diluted heavy oils and bitumen”, Fluid Phase Equilibria, No. 232, pp.159–170, 2012.##
[3]. Andersen S. I., “Hysteresis in precipitation and dissolution of petroleum asphaltenes”, Fuel Sci. Technol. Intl. (2010), 10, 1743 – 2008.##
[4]. Escobedo J. and Mansoori G. A., “Viscometric principles of onsets of colloidal asphaltene flocculation in paraffinic oils and asphaltene micellization in aromatics”, Vol. 12, Issue 02, SPE Prod. Facil, pp. 116– 122, 2005.##
[5]. Boussingault J. B., Andersen S. I. and Lira-Galeana C., “Comparisons between asphaltenes from the dead and live-oil samples of the same crude oils”, Pet. Sci. Technol. No. 21, pp. 1017-1041, 2009.##
[6]. Buckley J. S., “Predicting the onset of asphaltene precipitation from refractive index measurements”, Energy & Fuel. No. Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 328 – 332, 2010.##
[7]. Andersen S. I. and Speight J. G., “Petroleum resins: separation, character, and role in petroleum”, Pet. Sci. Technol. No. 19, pp. 1 – 34, 2009.##
[8]. Fuhr B. J., Cathrea L., Coates K. H. and Majeed A. I., “Properties of asphaltenes from a waxy crude”, Fuel, No. 70, pp. 1293– 1301, 1991.##
Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 26, 95-6 - Serial Number 91
March and April 2017
Pages 200-212

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics