Recent Developments on the Elucidation of Colloidal Aspects of Asphaltenes and Their Relevance to Oilfield Problems

Asphaltenes constitute the heavy petroleum fraction responsible for deposition events that may lead to reduced oil production, therefore of great interest for flow assurance. These molecules self-assemble in solutions leading to formation of aggregates that eventually grow towards precipitation and blockages in reservoirs and pipelines. Based on the Yen-Mullins aggregation model, two complementary scenarios are involved in asphaltenes phase behavior: one called thermodynamic, in which interacting molecules and other species can be assumed to be in equilibrium, and a second one, involving inter...