Asphaltene Dispersion via Atomistic Simulation in Benzene

Well head production of petroleum can be significantly affected by flocculation, deposition, and plugging of asphaltene inside the well. The economic implications of such formation damages are tremendous. To prevent deposition inside the reservoir, in the well head and inside the transmission lines, it is necessary to be able to predict the onset and amount of deposition due to various factors. In this paper, asphaltene behavior in benzene was studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The resuts on radial distribution functions and mean squared displacement are evidence on the process of dispersing at nano scale.

Keywords:

Asphaltene dispersion , benzene , molecular dynamics simulation , mean squared displacement