Asphaltene, resin, and wax deposition from petroleum fluids: Mechanisms and modeling

Production and processing of petroleum can be significantly affected by flocculation, deposition, and plugging of asphaltenes, asphalts, bitumens, resins, diamondoids, and paraffin/wax inside transfer conduits, and refinery components. The economic implications of such heavy organics depositions are tremendous. One question of interest in the oil industry is ''when'' and ''how much'' heavy organics will flocculate out under certain conditions. Since a petroleum fluid generally consists of a mixture of hydrocarbons and heavy organics-it may be necessary to look at this problem from a more fundamental point of view than it has been the practice in the past. In this paper the cause and effect mechanisms of such depositions are presented and the mathematical models for preventive measures in various cases of petroleum production, transportation, and processing are introduced.