Study of Resin Adsorption onto Asphaltene and Silica-Asphaltene Particles

Abstract

We present a methodology to study the adsorption behavior of resins on asphaltenes, which we call silica-asphaltene complex methodology (SACOM), and compare it to a methodology regularly used by many researchers (Acevedo et al., 1995 Acevedo, S., Ranaudo, M., Escobar, G., Gutiérrez, L. and Ortega, P. 1995. Adsorption of asphaltenes and resins on organic and inorganic substrates and their correlation with precipitation problems in production well tubing. Fuel., 74: 595–598. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; González et al., 2003 González, G., Neves, G., Saraiva, S., Lucas, E. and Anjos de Sousa, M. 2003. Electrokinetic Characterization of Asphaltenes and the Asphaltenes-Resins Interaction. Energ. Fuel., 17: 879–886. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; León et al., 2002 León, O., Contreras, E., Rogel, E., Dambakli, G., Acevedo, S., Carbornani, L. and Espidel, J. 2002. Adsorption of Native Resins on Asphaltene Particles: A Correlation between Adsorption and Activity. Langmuir, 18: 5106–5112. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Marczewski et al., 2002 Marczewski, A. and Szymula, M. 2002. Adsorption of asphaltenes from toluene on mineral surface. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 208: 259–266. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Pereira et al., 2007 Pereira, J. C., López, I., Salas, R., Silva, F., Fernández, C., Urbina, C. and López, J. C. 2007. Resins: The Molecules Responsible for the Stability/Instability Phenomena of Asphaltenes. Energ. Fuel., 21: 1317–1321.  [Google Scholar]) that we call traditional methodology. Three isotherms of resins adsorbed on the complex substrates (asphaltene and its colloidal fractions A₁ and A₂ adsorbed on silica) were built, analyzed, and then compared with two isotherms built by applying a traditional methodology where resins were adsorbed on two organic substrates: asphaltene and its fraction A₁.