Investigation of Asphaltene Stability in the Iranian Crude Oils

Abstract

<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>The influence of different factors on the asphaltene stability in three iranian crude oils</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>was evaluated. Compositional studies and structural characterization of resins and</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>asphaltenes were carried out in order to study a possible relationship between these</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>properties and asphaltene deposition behavior. Low hydrogen to carbon ratios and</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>high aromaticities were the main characteristics of the asphaltenes from more unstable</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>crude oils. According to these results, the stability behavior of asphaltenes was</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>influenced strongly by their structural characteristics. Colloidal stability indexes such</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>as the (aromatic+resins)/(asphaltene+saturates) ratio and (aromatics+resins)/</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>asphaltene ratio do not play a key role in the asphaltene stability for the studied crude</em> <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em>oils.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span>