Methodology for the Characterization and Modeling of Asphaltene Precipitation from Heavy Oils Diluted with n-Alkanes

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• 作者：Kamran Akbarzadeh ; Amandeep Dhillon ; William Y. Svrcek ; and Harvey W. Yarranton
• 刊名：Energy & Fuels
• 出版年：2004
• 出版时间：September 2004
• 年：2004
• 卷：18
• 期：5
• 页码：1434 - 1441
• 全文大小：161K
• 年卷期：v.18,no.5(September 2004)
• ISSN：1520-5029

文摘

A regular solution model, previously used to model asphaltene precipitation from WesternCanadian bitumens, was tested on four international heavy oil and bitumen samples. The inputparameters for the model are the mole fraction, the molar volume, and the solubility parameterfor each component. Heavy oils and bitumens were divided into four main pseudo-components,corresponding to the SARA fractions (saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes). Asphalteneswere divided into fractions of different molar mass, based on a gamma molar mass distribution.The molar volumes and solubility parameters of the pseudo-components were calculated usingsolubility, density, and molar mass measurements and previously developed correlations. Modelpredictions were compared with the measured onset and the amount of asphaltene precipitationfor solutions of asphaltenes in toluene and n-heptane and for heavy oils diluted with n-alkanes,all under ambient conditions. The overall average absolute deviations (AAD) of the predictedfractional precipitation or yields were <0.031 for the asphaltene solutions and <0.008 for thediluted heavy oils. A methodology for characterizing heavy oils and modeling asphalteneprecipitation from n-alkane-diluted heavy oils is proposed.