A study of asphaltene solubility and precipitation
Hong E, Paul Watkinson*
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
Received 20 March 2003; revised 9 September 2003; accepted 15...
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A study of asphaltene solubility and precipitation
Hong E, Paul Watkinson*
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
Received 20 March 2003; revised 9 September 2003; accepted 15 September 2003; available online 9 April 2004
Abstract
The effects of diluent composition on asphaltene precipitation from Cold Lake vacuum residue and Athabasca atmospheric tower bottoms
were determined using the hot filtration method at 60–85 8C.
For selected mixtures the temperature range was extended to 300 8C.
The
diluents include pure n-alkanes, a lube oil base-stock, a heavy vacuum gas oil and a resin-enriched fraction recovered from Cold Lake
vacuum residue by supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation.
The latter three complex diluents were tested alone and in blends, in order
to cover a range of saturates from 56 to 99.
4 wt%, aromatics from 0.
6 to 25 wt%, and resins from 0 to 19 wt%.
The scaling equation proposed
by
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