Simulation of Asphaltene Precipitation in an Iranian Crude Oil

Asphaltene precipitation is one of the most common problems faced by the oil industry throughout the world during oil production and refinery processes. In oil recovery, especially in gas injection, formation of asphaltene aggregation, followed by their deposition can result in plugging of the formation, well bore and production facilities and makes the process costly and sometimes uneconomical. Unfortunately, there is no predictive model for asphaltene problem treatment because the mechanisms of asphaltene precipitation and deposition are still under investigation due to their complexity. The main purpose of this research is to study the behavior of AhwazBangestan crude oil. As part of this work, the effect of different parameters on the amount of asphaltene precipitation was investigated. These parameters consist of solvent type and concentration, system temperature and pressure.

Keywords:

Asphaltene precipitation , Thermodynamic model , Winprop