Impact of Asphaltene Presence in Heavy Crude Oil and Its Separation Technique

Abstract

Heavy crude oil is the crude oil with no gas composition and major constituents are asphaltene, resins, saturates and aromatics. Heavy crude oil is capable of producing a low high valued products and high low valued products. Asphaltene is a molecular substance that acts as a binding molecule to help in the recovery of heavy crude oil. On the contrary, an asphaltene deposition becomes troublesome in the heavy crude oil transportation through pipelines. In this research article, the heavy crude oil was collected from the western part of Indian oilfield and subjected to the separation of asphaltene content by the addition of aliphatic solvent. The results of separation of asphaltene from the heavy crude oil by the addition of n-heptane and n-hexane were found to be 15 wt. % and 17 wt. %. The asphaltene will cause moderate deposition problem during the production and transportation of investigated heavy crude oil.