A Thermodynamic Model for the Prediction of Asphaltene Precipitation

Abstract

Asphaltene precipitation in reservoirs, wells, and facilities can have a severe and detrimental impact on the oil production. Due to the extreme chemical complexity of the asphaltene and crude oil and the lack of comprehensive experimental data, the modeling of asphaltene precipitation in crude oil remains as a challenging task. In this article, a compositional thermodynamic model was developed to predict asphaltene precipitation conditions. The proposed model is based on a cubic equation of state with an additional term to describe the association of asphaltene molecules. Extensive testing against the literature data, including asphaltene precipitation from crude oil and solvent injection systems, concludes that the proposed model provides reasonable predictive results.