It is an important concern to prevent asphaltene related damages in hydrocarbon reservoirs.There are many investigations about asphaltene and its effects and how to reduce them during the oil production. In the present work, some experiments have been conducted to investigate the effect of the SiO2, NiO, and Fe3O4 nanoparticles on the oil recovery, and find out how they adsorb asphaltene and prevent its precipitation. Moreover, instead of crude oil, a synthetic solution with a given component concentration is used. Results of this study show that in solutions without nanoparticles, increase in the amount of normal heptane causes more asphaltene aggregation takes place; however, in the presence of nanoparticles, increasing the normal heptane would result 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: SiO2> NiO> Fe3O4.
An experimental and modeling approach was developed in this research to investigate the effects of CO2, new synthesized CaO and commercial SiO2 nanoparticle concentrations on the Asphaltene Precipitation Envelope (APE). First, the effects of different temperatures and CO2 concentrations on asphaltene precipitation trends were observed. Second, the impact of CaO and SiO2 nanoparticle concentrations on asphaltene precipitation were observed in the presence of CO2 at different temperatures. Third, Advanced Redlich-Kwong-Soave (RKSA) equation of state (EOS) was considered to modify Multiflash (Infochem Co.) software from the aspect of entering physical characteristics of CaO and SiO2 nanoparticles as pseudo components. Fourth, the developed model was used for predicting the effects of CO2, CaO and SiO2 concentrations on APE in ranges that no experimental data existed. At constant CO2 concentration and temperature during natural depletion, asphaltene precipitation increased above saturation pressure, while below saturation pressure, asphaltene precipitation decreased (solution gas evolved from crude oil and made it richer). As temperature increased at constant CO2 concentration, asphaltene precipitation decreased, while it was observed that the saturation pressures increased. Although two different trends were observed in upper asphaltene onsets at different temperatures and CO2 concentrations, in wide ranges of data, as temperature increased, asphaltene upper onset pressure increased. CaO and SiO2 nanoparticles decreased asphaltene precipitations in the presence of CO2, but CaO had better applications for reducing asphaltene precipitation. The proposed Software/RKSA EOS model was in good agreement with the obtained experimental data, and it was applicable for predicting the effects of CO2, CaO and SiO2 nanoparticles concentration on APE.
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