| With the depletion of conventional crude oil resources, a shift towards heavy and offshore oil production is inevitable. One of the major production problems that heavy oil and offshore petroleum producers face is asphaltene deposition. Asphaltene deposits can reduce production by precipitating in the reservoir or on subsurface and surface production flow paths. Although operators try to avoid asphaltene deposition or alternatively partially remove deposits in case of precipitation, accumulation of deposits is often unavoidable. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of asphaltene deposition and the effect of pressure, temperature, composition and flow conditions is essential. The potential steps in asphaltene deposition are precipitation, flocculation, direct adsorption and adhesion. Asphaltenes are also known to self-associate on a molecular level and this self-association must be accounted for when investigating the steps in asphaltene deposition.; There are three goals for the present research project: (1) to investigate self-association of asphaltenes and develop methods to extract asphaltenes with consistent physical properties, (2) to examine and possibly model the steps in the mechanism of asphaltene deposition, and (3) to design and construct a prototype test facility (pipe-loop) for detecting asphaltene deposition in flowing systems. Note, only the deposition steps relevant to the pipe-loop design (precipitation and adsorption) were considered. |
