Behavior of Asphaltene Adsorption onto the Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Surface and Its Effect on Heavy Oil Recovery

Preventing asphaltene-related damage in hydrocarbon reservoirs is an important concern. Many investigations have been performed on asphaltene and its effects and how to reduce these effects during oil production. In the present work, some experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of SiO 2, NiO, and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles on oil recovery and to determine how they adsorb asphaltene and prevent its precipitation. Moreover, instead of crude oil, a synthetic solution with a given component concentration was used. The results of this study show that, in solutions without nanoparticles, an increase in the amount of n -heptane causes more asphaltene aggregation to take place; however, in the presence of nanoparticles, increasing the n -heptane content results in an increase in the asphaltene adsorption on the surface of nanoparticles. Furthermore, it is shown that the amount of oil recovery in the presence of different nanoparticles corresponds to the ordering SiO 2 > NiO > Fe 3 O 4 .