Correlation Between Properties of Asphaltenes and Precipitation Conditions

Asphaltenes from three crude oils were precipitated by using a pressurized system. Different conditions during the precipitation of asphaltenes were studied: pressure was varied between 15 and 45 kg/cm2 and temperature between 40°C and 100°C. The effect of contact time and solvent-to-oil ratio was also studied in the range of 0.5–6 hr and 2:1 to 5:1 mL/g, respectively. Asphaltenes properties were analyzed as a function of pressure and temperature. It was found that in a deeper way temperature influences the asphaltenes properties than pressure in the range studied in this work. Asphaltenes properties were highly dependent on the nature of crude oil. Various correlations were developed and experimental and calculated asphaltenes contents and properties were in good agreement with absolute error less than 0.2%.