Revisiting the flocculation kinetics of destabilized asphaltenes.

A comprehensive review of the recently published work on asphaltene destabilization and flocculation kinetics is presented. Four different experimental techniques were used to study asphaltenes undergoing flocculation process in crude oils and model oils. The asphaltenes were destabilized by different n-alkanes and a geometric population balance with the Smoluchowski collision kernel was used to model the asphaltene aggregation process.

The fractal aggregation of asphaltenes.

This paper discusses time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering results that were used to investigate asphaltene structure and stability with and without a precipitant added in both crude oil and model oil. A novel approach was used to isolate the scattering from asphaltenes that are insoluble and in the process of aggregating from those that are soluble. It was found that both soluble and insoluble asphaltenes form fractal clusters in crude oil and the fractal dimension of the insoluble asphaltene clusters is higher than that of the soluble clusters.