Undesirable adsorption of asphaltenes on rock minerals was studied. Asphaltenes are an important component of crude oil, being also natural surfactant stabilising water/crude oil emulsions. Owing to their chemical nature, asphaltenes are able to associate, form micelles and create a surface charge at the interface. Asphaltenes may be adsorbed on rock reservoir from the organic solvents in crude oil and as an organic colloid, they can adsorb electrolyte ions from aqueous solution. In order to simulate natural conditions we used asphaltenes from local drills, toluene as solvent and several typical oxides and carbonate rock components or minerals as adsorbents. Our study included natural Brazilian quartz, dolomite, calcite and kaolin, as well as pure oxides: Fe 2 O 3 and TiO 2 . The typical shape of asphaltene adsorption isotherms was obtained for all systems studied with the characteristic 'steps' which indicate changes in the state of asphaltene molecules in the solution and at the mineral surface. Those changes are related to the asphaltene association and further formation of hemimicelles and micelles.

Adsorption of asphaltenes on soils is one of the important problems, though largely underestimated, in environment protection of Lublin region. Asphaltene adsorption properties affect the way the contamination spreads in soil. Analysis of this phenomenon may help in localisation and elimination of oil spills. The asphaltenes studied were obtained from local drills (Ś widnik near Lublin, Poland). In our previous paper, we investigated adsorption of asphaltenes from toluene on rock components (quartz, dolomite, calcite, kaolin as well as pure iron and titanium oxides). In order to simulate the natural oil spill conditions, we used toluene as solvent and typical soils from Lublin region as adsorbents (black earth, peat soil, lessive soil, brown soil, sandy podsolised soil, pararendzina soil). Main physicochemical properties of these soils were reported. Moreover, basic adsorption properties (nitrogen adsorption, adsorption of surfactants from water solutions, acidity, etc.) of several soil fraction were studied. We decided to use only certain mineral fractions with highest adsorption capacity, as other fractions have limited impact on total adsorption. Adsorption on soil fraction gives also some insight into relative importance of various soil components on summary soil properties. The results of adsorption measurements are described in terms of physical adsorption on heterogeneous solids. # 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract