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Asphaltene Aggregation Kinetics in Crude Oil Using Confocal Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Robert J. Johnston  and
Thomas G. Mason
Robert J. Johnston
Affiliation:
Corporate Strategic Research, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, Route 22 East, Annandale, NJ, 08801
Thomas G. Mason
Affiliation:
Corporate Strategic Research, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, Route 22 East, Annandale, NJ, 08801
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Abstract

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) has been used to study asphaltene aggregation kinetics by employing the microscope's automated acquisition to generate time-lapsed projection maps of aggregating asphaltenes in the autofluorescent matrix of crude oil. Heavy crude oils contain asphaltene particles resulting in the production of optically observable micron-sized asphaltene aggregates. These aggregates form as a result of attractive interactions induced by mixing the heavy crude oil with a poor solvent. This technique has been employed to determine the volume fraction of aggregated asphaltenes, ϕagg, and the time evolution of this phenomenon. The measurements cover a range of various concentrations of asphaltene volume fractions of the heavy asphaltenic oil, ϕm, from ϕm =0.001 to ϕm =0.4.

At each ϕm,after the mixtures have been made, approximately 20 μl of the crude oil is placed in a 20 μm deep flat-well quartz cell and immediately placed on a microscope stage.

Type
Microscopy in the Real World: Natural Materials
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 7 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2001, Microscopy Society of America 59th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 35th Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California August 5-9, 2001 , August 2001 , pp. 542 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001

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References

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