Stabilization of Asphaltenes in Aliphatic Solvents Using Alkylbenzene-Derived Amphiphiles. 1. Effect of the Chemical Structure of Amphiphiles on Asphaltene Stabilization

Distribution of acids and nitrogen-containing compounds in biodegraded oils of the Liaohe Basin by negative ion ESI FT-ICR MS

“…Moreover, N1O4 and O5 classes were presented in asphaltenes, but absent in maltenes. Basically, these multi-heteroatom compounds are preferentially precipitated in the deasphaltene process due to their higher aromaticity and polarity that decrease their solubility in n-hexane (Chang and Fogler, 1994;Shi et al, 2010b).…”

“…Because of the extremely complex composition of crude oil, it is impossible to isolate asphaltene compounds with specific chemical structures (Chang and Fogler, 1994). Typically, asphaltenes were defined as the crude oil fractions that are insoluble in aliphatic solvents but soluble in aromatic solvents; thus, asphaltenes separated from crude oil by low molecular weight alkanes contain the most polar and the highest molecular weight species of crude oil (Chang and Fogler, 1994).…”

A DPD study of asphaltene aggregation: The role of inhibitor and asphaltene structure in diffusion-limited aggregation

“…The efficiency of an amphiphilic aggregation inhibitor is primarily controlled by the polarity or acidity of the head group and the length of the alkyl tail [14]. Increasing the polarity or acidity of the head group promotes the stability of asphaltenes, by increasing the interaction between the asphaltene functional (polar) groups and the head group of the inhibitor.…”

“…When the tail length of the inhibitor is increased, the ability to stabilize the asphaltenes increases. When the carbon number of the tail is less than 6, the efficiency decreases significantly with decreasing tail length [14]. Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonic Acid (DBSA) has been used frequently to prevent aggregation and adsorption of asphaltenes [15].…”

“…DBSA shows an interaction with asphaltenes with predominantly basic functional groups but no interaction with asphaltenes with acidic groups [16]. DBSA is a relatively efficient inhibitor compared to other varieties such as nonylbenzene or alkylphenol [14], but it is only efficient at relatively high molar concentrations with several DBSA molecules per asphaltene. High molar concentration is however expected, in order to fully suppress the effect of the majority of functional groups in most of the asphaltene molecules.…”