A New Method to Characterize the Size and Shape Dynamics of Asphaltene Deposition

Abstract

Use of miscible solvents in improved-oil-recovery processes requires knowledge of how the solvent will behave over all mixing ratios of oil and solvent. In particular it is important to know at what solvent concentration the asphaltenes start to precipitate and what conditions will cause the particles to flocculate and eventually deposit in the reservoir pore network. A new method was developed that uses image analysis to convert information obtained from a sequence of images to describe the process of asphaltene precipitation under reservoir conditions. The full-length paper describes application of frequency-domain imaging to study the asphaltene-precipitation/-flocculation/-deposition process for a Japan Natl. Oil Corp. (JNOC) CO₂ miscible flood.