Heteroatoms effects on asphaltenes interactions: an Experimental Study

Asphaltene precipitation is a significant issue in petroleum production, transportation, and refining processes, resulting in plugging, equipment fouling, and catalyst deactivation. This research characterizes asphaltenes extracted from three distinct Iranian crude oils and examines their interactions with the novel aromatic dispersant, 1,3,5-triphenoxy-2,4,6-triazine. The primary objective of this study is to experimentally elucidate the specific roles of heteroatoms (sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen) and the hydrogen-to-carbon ratio on the precipitation behavior of asphaltenes and their interactions with 1,3,5-triphenoxy-2,4,6-triazine. Elemental analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and particle size analysis were employed to characterize asphaltenes and assess asphaltene-dispersant interactions. The results revealed that asphaltene samples with higher heteroatom contents, especially oxygen, exhibited a stronger tendency towards precipitation and reached the asphaltene precipitation onset point earlier. In addition, in the presence of 1,3,5-triphenoxy-2,4,6-triazine, the dispersion indices for synthetic oils 1-3 reached 59.45%, 27.22%, 42.14%, accompanied by particle-size reductions of 42%, 32%, 39%, respectively. The results demonstrate the potential of using 1,3,5- triphenoxy-2,4,6-triazine as an efficient chemical inhibitor to overcome asphaltene-led operation issues with different synthetic oil samples.