in this investigation, the mechanical properties of the blends of blown bitumen110/10, heavy vacuum slops (h.v.s), bitumen 60/70 penetration grade and isotactic polypropylene (ipp) were studied for the first time. our results showed that modulus varies non-linearly and at certain asphaltenes contents a peak appears. considering these phenomena it is revealed that in the absence of ipp, interact...

While aromatic chemicals are applied to petroleum oil systems to thermodynamically prevent asphaltene precipitation, amphiphilic dispersants can truncate the precipitation process and create stable suspensions of asphaltene colloids in the submicrometer size range. Bulk sedimentation and dynamic light scattering have shown that stabilizing dispersants inhibit colloidal asphaltene aggregation at...

Paving asphalts are often judged and selected based on their rheological behavior at prescribed temperatures or aging response. Asphalts are considered as a colloidal mixture, where clusters of polar, aromatic molecules are dispersed in a less polar solvents. Thus, the extent to which the solvent phase disperses the associating molecules will determine many of the fundamental asphalt properties...

Organic-rich shales are populated by methanogenic consortia that are able to degrade the fossilized organic matter into methane gas. To identify the organic fraction effectively degraded, we have sequentially depleted two types of organic-rich sedimentary rocks, shale, and coal, at two different maturities, by successive solvent extractions to remove the most soluble fractions (maltenes and asp...

The molecular-mass distribution of the asphaltene fraction of petroleum is rapidly becoming more constrained, but themolecular architecture remains poorly understood. Two types of molecular structures have been proposed to be representative of asphaltenes: the “island” model and the “archipelago” model. Here, nine compounds were synthesized on the basis of pyrene, representing both types of mod...

Asphaltenes are considered as the most recalcitrant petroleum fraction and represent a big problem for the recovery, separation and processing of heavy oils and bitumens. Neosartorya fischeri is a saprophytic fungus that is able to grow using asphaltenes as the sole carbon source [1]. We performed transcription profiling using a custom designed microarray with the complete genome from N. fische...

Solvent separation is frequently applied to petroleum vacuum residues to reduce the coke-forming tendencies of these materials. This process is capable of removing all or a substantial amount of asphaltenes from feedstocks that are destined for further processing and thus applied as the first step of refining. Maltenes and asphaltenes obtained from vacuum residues of Heera (HVR) and Jodhpur (JV...

We study the structure and phase behavior of asphaltenes comprised of large polyaromatic molecules in blends of naturally occurring crude oils using small angle neutron scattering (SANS). When two compatible oils are blended together, the asphaltenes remain dispersed as colloidal nanoparticles; however, when two incompatible oils are blended together, these asphaltene nanoparticles can aggregat...

Asphaltenes and insoluble fractions of vacuum residues (VRs) of two Indian crude oils (viz. Heera and Jodhpur) of different specific gravity were obtained by precipitation of VRs in n-hexane, n-heptane, and ethyl acetate, and also ' by subsequent reprecipitation of n-heptane and ethyl acetate soluble fractions by n-pentane. The effect of various solvents on average molecular structure of asphal...

GAWRYS, KEITH LOUIS. How Asphaltenes Aggregate: Role of Chemistry and Solvent. (Under the direction of Peter K. Kilpatrick) Asphaltenes from three crude oils were separated on a preparatory-scale into 20 30 discrete subfractions by sequential precipitation from mixtures of n-heptane and toluene. The earliest fractions precipitated were characterized by lower than average aromaticity and atomic ...