Petroleum asphaltenes - Part 2: The effect of asphaltenes and resin constituents on recovery and refining processes

Abstract

Petroleum is a complex but delicately balanced system that depends upon the relationship of the constituent fractions to each other and the relationships are dictated by molecular interactions. Thus, some aspects of recovery and refining chemistry, especially the chemistry of the deposition of asphaltenic material (degradation or reaction products of the asphaltene constituents and the resin constituents), can be proposed by virtue of the studies that have led further knowledge of the nature of asphaltene constituents and the resin constituents and particularly the nature of their interaction in crude oil. Copyright © 2004, Institut français du pétrole.