Evaluation and comparison of different models for asphaltene particle deposition in flow streams

Abstract

Asphaltene deposition in the wellbore is a frequent problem in certain oil fields that may yield serious operational challenges, safety hazards, and an overall decrease in production efficiency. These particulates are entrained in the flowing fluid from the reservoir or generated in the wellbore flow. The asphaltene precipitation is a function of pressure, temperature, and fluid composition. Considering the existence of asphaltene in the oil, the accurate prediction of those solid particle deposition is necessary to design production facilities and to optimize well performance.A great deal of research has been conducted to study the dynamic aspects of solid particles fouling inside a pipe. However, those studies have mostly been applied in engineering fields other than petroleum. In this paper, firstly we discuss the mechanisms for solid particle deposition, including particle momentum and mass transfer as well as particle re-entrainment. Afterwards we describe important particulate deposition models and compare them using different sets of experiments published in the literature. In one set, deposition of iron particles in the gas flow is investigated and in the other, deposition of asphaltene in the oil flow is considered.Our results show that the deposition models that were studied in this work satisfactorily agree with experimental data. They are also applicable for modeling asphaltene deposition in crude oils as well as other particle deposition in gas flow streams.