Title : Studies on the performance of aryl imidazolium ionic liquids on asphaltene inhibition
Abstract:
Precipitation and deposition of asphaltene are considered as catastrophic issues facing the petroleum industry. Asphaltene deposition mainly occurs at variety places such as formation pore spaces, pumps, pipelines, wellbore, wellhead, tubing, surface facilities and safety valves causing operational problems, production deficiencies and enormous economic losses. This present work aims to study the effect of series of newly synthesized aryl ionic liquids (ILs) with long alkyl chains on asphaltene dispersion. The precipitation of asphaltene particles inhibits due to the π–π* interactions and hydrogen bonds formation. IL-8, IL-10, IL-12 &IL-14 were synthesized with high yields (83, 86, 82 & 87% respectively) and well characterized via different tools of analysis (FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and Elemental Analysis). Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) was investigated and shows high thermal stability for all synthesized ILs. The different surface activity parameters were studied at different temperatures to imitate the reservoir conditions. It was shown that IL-8, IL-10, IL-12 &IL-14 are active compounds (surfactants) with low interfacial tension values. Density Functional Theory (DFT) was investigated to study the geometry electronic structures. The evaluation of the synthesized ILs as asphaltene dispersants were occurred using two different techniques; viscometric and refractive index techniques. Both methods confirmed that the asphaltene onset precipitation increased after added the synthesized ILs.
