Understanding the adsorption mechanisms of asphaltenes and other surface active components to different mineral and catalyst surfaces in oil production

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The proposed project deals with a very challenging issue confronting the Canadian and global petroleum industry. Many industrial problems in oil production such as wellbore or pipeline plugging, alteration of wettability of (clay minerals) solids, sedimentation during crude blending, and catalyst deactivation are all attributed, at least partly, to molecular aggregation and adsorption of asphaltenes and other surface active components (e.g., resins, naphthenic acids) upon exposure to an unfavourable liquid environment and to various solid-oil-water interfaces. Asphaltenes have strong tendency to self-associate leading to aggregates and adsorption to engineering surfaces (such as pipelines), resulting in reduction of oil production from the reservoir and serious processing problems in operations, i.e., corrosion, erosion and fouling in the heat exchangers, transportation devices and distillation equipment, causing a significant increase in operating cost. Although the adsorption of ashpaltenes and other surface active components onto mineral and clay surfaces has received much attention in petroleum industry, the understanding of adsorption mechanisms still remain very limited, particularly at the nanoscale and molecular level.