Evaluation of Asphaltenes Deposition Inhibition Factors in Heavy Crude Oil Pipelines

Abstract

Asphaltenes deposition is considered as Achilles's heel in the oil industry. The nucleation, precipitation and deposition of asphaltenes reduce the production rate significantly in affected wells and sometimes it can completely block the flow by plugging the flowlines, tubing and process facilities, in severe cases. This chapter evaluates the extrinsic and the intrinsic (thermodynamic) factors within the heavy crude oil production system. The main consequences of asphaltenes deposition are discussed such as the solvent-to-crude oil dilution ratio, crude oil physical properties (cloud point, pour point and API gravity), chemical solvent type (carbon number, functional group), agitation time and temperature changes. This chapter is expected to become the means for understanding the factors affecting the asphaltenes nucleation, precipitation and deposition.

Status and Outlook of Oil Field Chemistry-Assisted Analysis during the Energy Transition Period

“…The other methods, such as size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and vapor pressure osmometry (VPO), are reported to be flawed because of asphaltene aggregation problems . FT-ICR is a high-accuracy mass spectrometer for macromolecules with high resolving powers, , but these molecules tend to break into pieces without ionization. The electrospray ionization (ESI) technique could provide ions for FT-ICR after discriminatingly ionizing ions, which avoids the asphaltene aggregation problems.…”