Events

Faculty Candidate Dr. Francisco Vargas, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, will give a talk entitled "Advances in predicting asphaltene deposition and development of a novel strategy for its mitigation" as part of the Claude R. Hocott Lectureship Series.

Abstract:

Asphaltene deposition is a flow assurance problem that threatens the continuous production of crude oil worldwide. This problem is very likely to get worse because of the current tendency to produce from deeper waters and also due to the implementation of enhanced oil recovery operations based on CO₂ or hydrocarbon gas injection.  Despite the efforts devoted to understanding the mechanisms for asphaltene precipitation and deposition, the problem still persists and most of the proposed solutions are case specific. Even the chemicals that are used to inhibit the formation of asphaltene deposits are commercially evaluated by trial and error methods, and the knowledge about the mechanisms of action of such oilfield chemicals is very limited. In this seminar I will present some of the factors that contribute to the complexity of the problem and the most important challenges that need to be addressed in order to find the cost/effective solutions to mitigate asphaltene deposition. By conducting an experimental investigation based on NIR spectroscopy, SEM, and optical microscopy we have proposed and validated a multistep mechanism for asphaltene behavior, which is also consistent with field observations. Furthermore, we have identified and corrected some problems in the commercial techniques followed by service laboratories. The mechanism and experimental evidence is also consistent with a modeling method for asphaltene precipitation based on the PC-SAFT equation of state that we have proposed at the Petroleum Institute in collaboration with Rice University. We have further enhanced the model to make it suitable for incorporation into a user-friendly simulation tool. This tool is already being used by the oil companies in Abu Dhabi. The proposed software can predict the precipitation of asphaltene at reservoir conditions, which is a necessary condition for deposition. Finally the new mechanism, has also given us a valuable insight into the complex mechanism of asphaltene precipitation and deposition, and has enabled us to design a new asphaltene deposition inhibitor, which outperforms current commercial oilfield chemicals. Although the results are preliminary they are very encouraging, and after some additional testing, we are preparing a field trial, which is sponsored by one of the Abu Dhabi oil companies. This seminar will illustrate a successful story of integration of fundamental and applied research, by combining both experimental and theoretical approaches as an attempt to resolve one of the challenging problems that are faced by the oil industry nowadays.