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Solubility and diffusivity of propane in heavy oil and its SARA fractions
Author(s) -
Marufuzzaman Mohammad,
Henni Amr
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.21977
Subject(s) - solubility , asphaltene , propane , chemistry , gravimetric analysis , solvent , thermal diffusivity , hildebrand solubility parameter , adsorption , diffusion , thermodynamics , chromatography , analytical chemistry (journal) , organic chemistry , physics
The design and modelling of solvent‐based heavy oil recovery requires information about the solubility and diffusivity of particular solvents in heavy oil and its fractions. In this study, the original Cactus Lake oil was first characterized into saturate, aromatic, resin, asphaltene, and maltene fractions. An intelligent gravimetric microbalance was used to measure the solubility of propane in the heavy oil and its saturate, aromatic, resin, asphaltene, and maltene fractions. The measurements were carried out at 288, 294, 299 and 303 K, and at pressures up to 600 kPa. From the experimental results, it was observed that the saturate fractions have the highest solubility followed by maltene, aromatic, heavy oil and resin fractions. Solubility data were also reported in the form of Henry's law constants. It was observed that the asphaltene content affects the propane solubility quite significantly in the heavy oil at the same equilibrium pressure. The Peng–Robinson equation of state was used to correlate the experimental results within acceptable deviations. The adsorbed amounts of propane in asphaltene were also measured at 288, 294, 299 and 303 K and at pressures up to 600 kPa to determine the adsorption capability of propane on asphaltene. Finally, time‐dependent concentration data were used to determine the diffusion coefficients of propane in heavy oil, saturate, aromatic and maltene fractions using a simple diffusion model. It was observed that the diffusion coefficient increases with pressure but decreases with the asphaltene content.