Cohesive interactions during asphaltene deposition for different crude oils

Asphaltene deposition in oil production and transportation systems poses serious challenges, which may ultimately lead to lower throughput, higher pressure drop, and increased operating costs. The patrial cleaning of asphaltene deposition from the inner surface of well casings, pipelines, and surface facilities results in cohesive interactions between asphaltene particles and the adhered asphaltene layer on the surface. This may, in turn, exacerbate the problem of asphaltene deposition. This study investigates the impact of cohesive forces that govern asphaltene deposition through a comprehensive analysis of surface energy interactions. The results provide valuable insights into effective prevention and mitigation strategies. The surface energy components of the van Oss approach, and the XDLVO theory facilitated the calculation of cohesive interaction energy in the asphaltene-crude oil system for three different crude oil samples of Z-55, K-42 and R-95. The results showed that the impact of the Lifschitz-van der Waals component of asphaltene and crude oil on the cohesive interaction energy compared to that of the electron donor component is not noticeable. Contrariwise, the influence of the electron donor component of asphaltene (gamma(-)(A)) on cohesive interaction energy is opposite to that for the crude oil (gamma(-)(C)). Therefore, the fate of cohesive interaction energy would overwhelmingly be dominated by the competition between the two components of gamma(-)(A) and gamma(-)(C). The propensity of changes in each component on cohesive interaction energy for crude oil K-42 is opposite to crude oils Z-55 and R-95. The obtained results were further validated using available field data.