The Prediction of Asphaltene Adsorption Isotherm Constants on Mineral Surfaces

In this study, a novel model for adsorption of asphaltene, extracted from shale oil and dissolved in toluene on Kaolin, Smectite, Fluorite, and Hematite, was proposed using genetic algorithms (GAs). A GA procedure was utilized to optimize the Langmuir constants for a more accurate estimation of the set of model parameters. The GA outputs show that all three except latter mineral follow the Langmuir-type isotherms, which have good agreement with experimental results. However, Hematite mineral follows a multilayer adsorption isotherm.