Assessing the Asphaltene Adsorption on Metal Oxide Nanoparticles
Volume 5, Issue 3, Summer 2016, Pages 62-72
https://doi.org/10.22050/ijogst.2015.38531
Fatemeh Amin, Ali Reza Solaimany Nazar
Abstract The Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) approach is adopted here to evaluate the impact of
effective factors such as nanoparticles type, nanoparticles to model solution mass ratio, asphaltene
structure, and temperature on asphaltene adsorption equilibrium. Herein, the toluene-asphaltene
solution model is applied. Three commercially nanoparticles (SiO2, Al2O3, and TiO2) are used.
Asphaltene characterizations are carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It is found that the
nanoparticle type and asphaltene structure with a respective influence of 48.5% and 3.11% have the
maximum and minimum contribution on the amount of adsorbed asphaltene at the selected levels
respectively. Aluminum oxide nanoparticle has the maximum and silicon oxide nanoparticle shows
the minimum adsorption. The temperature has no statistical significance. Asphaltenes with higher
aromaticity have more tendencies for adsorption on nanoparticles.