Abstract

Asphaltene is the heaviest organic compound in crude oils that its precipitation and deposition cause many negative effects on oil production such as an overall decrease in production rate and an increase in operating costs. Nanoparticle technology is a rapidly growing field that may supply an alternative and novel technique for heavy oil upgrading and recovery. As asphaltene depletion by nanoparticles in a system close to reality has not been studied yet, in this work the adsorption process was investigated in a flow–loop system to resemble a real process. To this end, the co-precipitation of ferric and ferrous ions method was applied to synthesis maghemite (γ-Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles. The synthesized maghemite nanoparticles (MNPs) were applied for the adsorption and removal of asphaltene from crude oil samples in the flow–loop system. The influence of different factors such as contact time, the dose of the nanoparticles, and flow velocity on the adsorption process was investigated. The results of the flow–loop mode experiment indicated that the rate of asphaltene adsorption onto MNPs increases with increasing oil velocity, contact time, and the dose of MNPs. Kinetic experiments were also showed that asphaltene adsorption onto MNPs follows the nonlinear Thomas model and the equilibrium could be achieved in less than 4 h.

中文翻译：

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原油中沥青质去除的新研究：磁赤铁矿纳米颗粒流-循环系统的实验研究

摘要

沥青质是原油中最重的有机化合物，其沉淀和沉积会对石油生产产生许多负面影响，例如生产率的整体下降和运营成本的增加。纳米颗粒技术是一个快速发展的领域，可以为重油的提质和回收提供替代和新颖的技术。由于尚未研究在接近现实的系统中纳米颗粒对沥青质的消耗，因此在这项工作中，我们在类似于实际过程的流-环系统中研究了吸附过程。为此，铁和亚铁离子方法的共沉淀物施加到合成磁赤铁矿（γ-的Fe ₂ ö ₃）纳米粒子。合成的磁赤铁矿纳米颗粒（MNPs）用于流循环系统中从原油样品中吸附和去除沥青质。研究了接触时间，纳米颗粒剂量，流速等因素对吸附过程的影响。流动-循环模式实验的结果表明，沥青质在MNPs上的吸附速率随油速，接触时间和MNPs剂量的增加而增加。动力学实验还表明，沥青质吸附在MNPs上遵循非线性的Thomas模型，并可以在不到4小时内达到平衡。