The aggregation and solubility of asphaltenes are studied by classical molecular dynamics simulations. Average three-dimensional atomistic models are built on the basis of experimental data for the asphaltenes from a series of crude oil samples. The simulation of two such asphaltene models in four different solvents puts into evidence the formation of oligomeric clusters and gives clues to the ...

The use of nanoparticles, including metal oxide surfaces, as asphaltene adsorbents is a potential method of removing and/or upgrading asphaltenes. The adsorption of two asphaltene types, extracted from two types of Iranian crude oil, onto nanoparticles (TiO2, SiO2, and Al2O3) are assessed and the thermal behavior of the adsorbed asphaltenes is examined under an oxidizing atmosphere through ther...

Water-in-crude oil emulsions are formed during petroleum production and asphaltenes play an important role in their stabilization. Demulsifiers are added to destabilize such emulsions,however the demulsification mechanism is not completely known. In this paper, the performances of commercial poly(ethylene oxide-b-propylene oxide) demulsifiers were studied using synthetic water-in-oil emulsions ...

A method to characterize crude oil including asphaltenes using the perturbed chain form of the statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) is presented. The theory accurately predicts the bubble point, density, and asphaltene precipitation onset for the oil. Examples show that the theory predicts asphaltene instability due to changes in pressure, temperature, and fluid composition. Further w...

The deposition of asphaltenes in porous media, an important problem in science and macromolecular engineering, was for the first time investigated in a transparent packed-bed microreactor (μPBR) with online analytics to generate high-throughput information. Residence time distributions of the μPBR before and after loading with ~29 μm quartz particles were measured using inline UV-Vis spectrosco...

The purpose of this work is to analyze the electron–nuclear interactions vanadyl-porphyrin (VP) complexes in oil asphaltenes. Asphaltenes from Athabasca sands were studied by HYperfine Sublevel CORrelation Spectroscopy (HYSCORE) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). It makes it possible resolve and interpret complex hyperfine spectra intrinsic VP with strong weak between magnetic moment variou...

The adsorption of asphaltenes onto flat solid surfaces modified with mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of aliphatic and aromatic trichlorosilanes with varying wettabilities, aromaticities, and thicknesses is tested. The mixed SAMs are characterized by means of contact angle to assess hydrophobicity and molecular and chemical uniformity, spectroscopic ellipsometry to measure the thickness o...

Sulfur chemical structures present in crude oil products such as petroleum asphaltenes, resins, and maltenes obtained from two different oils have been determined using X-ray absorption nearedge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. Maltenes are pentane soluble portions, resins are pentane insoluble and heptane soluble portions, and asphaltenes are heptane insoluble portions of crude oil. The sulfur ...