Published: 10/04/2011
Published: 10/04/2011
High-pressure deposition cell is used to measure asphaltene deposition from asphaltenic crudes under realistic field conditions of pressure, temperature, composition, and shear. The laboratory-scale data is then used to fine-tune and validate a recently developed asphaltene deposition model for the high-pressure deposition cell. Sensitivity analyses are performed to indicate the impacts of changes in model parameters on the deposit predictions. Through this exercise, the number of model parameters is reduced from six to two. The model predictions are verified with the deposition experimental data that were not used for tuning. The identified parameters then become inputs to the asphaltene pipe deposition model for predictions of deposit thickness along the tubings and pipelines in the field.