TY - JOUR
T1 - Modeling of asphaltene precipitation from n-alkane diluted heavy oils and bitumens using the PC-SAFT equation of state
AU - Zúñiga-Hinojosa, María A.
AU - Justo-García, Daimler N.
AU - Aquino-Olivos, Marco A.
AU - Román-Ramírez, Luis A.
AU - García-Sánchez, Fernando
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the financial support of the Sectorial Fund CONACyT-SENER (Hydrocarbons) under Project Y.00118. D. N. Justo-García gratefully acknowledges the National Polytechnic Institute for their financial support through the Project SIP-20130658 . M.A. Zúñiga-Hinojosa thanks the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT) and the Mexican Petroleum Institute for their pecuniary support through a Ph.D. fellowship.
PY - 2014/8/25
Y1 - 2014/8/25
N2 - In this work, the PC-SAFT equation of state was applied to the modeling of asphaltene precipitation from n-alkane diluted heavy oils and bitumens. Liquid-liquid equilibrium was assumed between a dense liquid phase (asphaltene-rich phase) and a light liquid phase. The liquid-liquid equilibrium calculation, in which only asphaltenes were allowed to partition to the dense phase, was performed using an efficient method with Michelsen's stability test. The bisection or Newton-Raphson method was used to improve convergence. Experimental information of the heavy oils and bitumens, characterized in terms of solubility fractions (saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes), was taken from the literature. Asphaltenes were divided into fractions of different molar masses using a gamma distribution function. Predictions of the PC-SAFT equation of state using linear correlations of the binary interaction parameters between asphaltene subfractions and the n-alkane were compared with the measured onset of precipitation and the amount of precipitated asphaltene (fractional yield) of the heavy oils and bitumens diluted with n-alkanes. Results of the comparison showed a satisfactory agreement between the experimental data and the calculated values with the PC-SAFT equation.
AB - In this work, the PC-SAFT equation of state was applied to the modeling of asphaltene precipitation from n-alkane diluted heavy oils and bitumens. Liquid-liquid equilibrium was assumed between a dense liquid phase (asphaltene-rich phase) and a light liquid phase. The liquid-liquid equilibrium calculation, in which only asphaltenes were allowed to partition to the dense phase, was performed using an efficient method with Michelsen's stability test. The bisection or Newton-Raphson method was used to improve convergence. Experimental information of the heavy oils and bitumens, characterized in terms of solubility fractions (saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes), was taken from the literature. Asphaltenes were divided into fractions of different molar masses using a gamma distribution function. Predictions of the PC-SAFT equation of state using linear correlations of the binary interaction parameters between asphaltene subfractions and the n-alkane were compared with the measured onset of precipitation and the amount of precipitated asphaltene (fractional yield) of the heavy oils and bitumens diluted with n-alkanes. Results of the comparison showed a satisfactory agreement between the experimental data and the calculated values with the PC-SAFT equation.
KW - Asphaltene precipitation
KW - Equation of state
KW - Liquid-liquid equilibrium
KW - Onset
KW - PC-SAFT
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84903625293&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fluid.2014.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.fluid.2014.06.004
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0378-3812
VL - 376
SP - 210
EP - 224
JO - Fluid Phase Equilibria
JF - Fluid Phase Equilibria
ER -