Deposition and Removal Studies of Asphaltene from the Glass Surface

Abstract

Asphaltene deposition in crude oil reservoirs and transportation lines affects the oil recovery and incurs additional operational costs. The current study discusses the removal of asphaltene from inorganic silica surfaces using hydrodynamic forces. The deposition of asphaltene was carried out on clean glass slides (proxy material for silica) from heptane-asphaltene dispersions via aging. For the removal of asphaltene, a parallel plate channel is fabricated with a pocket to place aged substrates under varying shear rates. The apparatus enables studying the surface morphology changes on a glass slide due to controlled flow conditions through physical contact techniques like atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM characterizes the extent of both deposition and removal of asphaltene from the surface. The results show that large aggregates of asphaltene are removed from the surface with an increase in flow rates. The extent of removal of asphaltene from the substrate as a function of shear rate is determined. The study also discusses the possible mechanism of asphaltene removal from the surface using the hydrodynamic force calculations. The colloidal interactions calculated from hydrodynamic forces are reported to be F adh/(d/2) = 1.29 mN/m. The presence of asphaltene tends to alter surface wettability. Interestingly, the contact angle measurements carried out on the asphaltene-deposited glass slides and after removal of asphaltene from the surface showed a negligible change, indicating incomplete removal of asphaltene from the surface.

Review of Microscale Dynamics of Dilution-Induced Asphaltene Precipitation under Controlled Mixing Conditions

“…In addition, the size of the asphaltene particles decreases with the increase of Pe (Figure c). Abbas Rizvi et al also found that the size of the asphaltene particles deposited on the surface decreases with the increase of shear rates due to the breakage of asphaltene aggregates.…”

Melamine‐imprinted quartz crystal microbalance sensor for its detection in milk

“…The contact measurement was performed using the standard procedure 28,31 sessile drop technique in a Goniometer (model -DSA 100) manufactured by Kruss, Germany. Different sampling liquids, water, and methylene diiodide (MI) were tested on MIP-decorated silica surfaces at 25 C. A droplet of 10 μL of sample solution was placed, and the contact angle was measured by adjusting the drop form to the embedded application.…”

“…In addition, the testing solutions' surface energy was measured with different silica-modified surfaces. The relationship between the surface energy of the sample solution and the contact angle of test liquids over the surfaces is given by equation (1) 29,31,32…”

Role of Polymer-Based Nanofluids on Asphaltene Adsorption during Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Injection

“…It could be further theorized that a functionalized liquid that could act upon these forces, should be able to delay the adsorption . In this regards, Al-sultan et al showed that an anionic surfactant (dodecyl benzenesulfonic acid) could remove efficiently adsorbed asphaltene from stainless steel and glass surfaces at high concentration.…”