A Study of the methods for determining the onset of asphaltene precipitation

One of the major problem in the all area of petroleum industries (such as; production, operation, storage and transportation), is formation of heavy organic compounds and then deposition in equipment and pipeline (asphaltene and wax). Change in the composition, temperature and pressure of crude oil cause the formation of asphaltene precipitation, so the importance of determining the onset of asphaltene precipitation will be clear during the oil production. In this research, we investigated the different techniques of determining onset of asphaltene precipitation and their advantages and disadvantages. The result showed that the mechanism of asphaltene precipitation in determining of onset of asphaltene precipitation plays a significant role. Since different methods in determining, present the different definition form onset, such as onset of precipitation, clustering and deposition, so comprehensive studies have been done on them separately in this work.

Keywords:

asphaltene , resin , precipitation , flocculation , clustering