High‐throughput packed‐bed microreactors with in‐line analytics for the discovery of asphaltene deposition mechanisms

Abstract

Understanding asphaltene nanoaggregation kinetics is a key to predicting the deposition in pure quartz‐grain porous media. High‐throughput quartz packed‐bed microreactors (μPBRs) were, therefore, designed to provide mechanistic insights by merging oilfield chemistry and microchemical systems. In‐line UV‐Vis spectroscopy and pressure transducer were used to characterize the stable packing of quartz particles with porosity of ∼40% and permeability of ∼5.5 × 10−13 m2. Temperature (25.0–90.0°C), n‐heptane composition (50.0–80.0 vol %), and n‐alkane (n‐C5 to n‐C9) were all observed to influence asphaltenes deposition in the porous media, and reduced dispersion was obtained in the damaged packed‐bed by estimating dispersion coefficients and the Bodenstein number. Deposition by mechanical entrapment dominated the mechanism in all scenarios, as discovered by the simplified Kozeny–Carman and Civan's permeability‐porosity relationships. The results could aid in the design of remediations that minimize production losses of considerable economic magnitude. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 3534–3546, 2014