Asphaltene Nanoaggregates Measured in a Live Crude Oil by Centrifugation

Autor:	Oliver C. Mullins, John Ratulowski, Jinglin Gao, Birol Dindoruk, Julian Zuo, Kentaro Indo
Rok vydání:	2009
Předmět:	Wax Chromatography Gas oil ratio Chemistry General Chemical Engineering Energy Engineering and Power Technology Fuel oil Fuel Technology Chemical engineering Phase (matter) visual_art visual_art.visual_art_medium Oil sands Particle size Oil field Asphaltene
Zdroj:	Energy & Fuels. 23:4460-4469
ISSN:	1520-5029 0887-0624
DOI:	10.1021/ef900369r
Popis:	Asphaltene nanoaggregates have recently been observed in live crude oil by observation of gravitationally induced asphaltene gradients in four different reservoir sands with oil columns up to 1000 m vertical. When the liquid phase is invariant, these gradients can be fit using Archimedes buoyancy in the Boltzmann distribution; the only adjustable parameter in data fitting is the size of the asphaltene nanoaggregate; ∼2 nm is obtained in four reservoir sands and is similar to laboratory results for asphaltene nanoaggregates in toluene. Here, a live crude oil (with dissolved gases) has been spun at modest g forces for long times designed to create a large, equilibrium asphaltene gradient for the presumed 2 nm aggregates. Elevated temperatures (∼91 °C) were employed during centrifugation to mimic reservoir conditions for asphaltene aggregation and prevention of a possible wax phase. Elevated pressures were employed on the hot, live crude oil to maintain dissolved gas concentrations. A total of 13 alliquots o...
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
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