Structural and Rheological Behaviors and Aggregation of Thermally Pretreated Highly Paraffinic Crude Oils
摘要
The paper describes the structural and rheological investigation of two thermally pretreated highly paraffinic resinous crude oils, specifically the oils from the South-Maiskoye oil field (SM) and from the Archinskoye oil and gas condensate field (AR). Pretreating SM (asphaltene/resin ratio ≈ 0.09) at 40°C induced an anomalous rise in both viscosity–temperature behavior and asphalt–resin–paraffin deposit (ARPD) formation—in contrast to pretreatment of the same oil at 10, 20, and 60°C. For AR (with its asphaltene/resin ratio of about 0.23), elevating the pretreatment temperature to 60°C decreased the viscosity and pour point and increased the concentrations of resinous-asphaltenic components and solid n-alkanes in the ARPDs. Photon correlation spectroscopy revealed a spontaneous growth of aggregates when the SM oil was cooled from 35 to 25°C. Cooling the AR oil from 50 to 35°C generated large and small aggregates simultaneously.