Inhibition of asphaltene precipitation in blended crude oil using novel oil-soluble maleimide polymers

ABSTRACT

Asphaltene deposition can cause serious problems during petroleum refinery. In this paper, oil-soluble MAC series asphaltene dispersants with comblike structure were synthesized by free- radical polymerization and amination. The asphaltene deposition inhibition was investigated by determining the flocculation onset of blended crude oil (Tahe: Northern Xinjiang = 20:80 (w/w)) and conducting dynamic thermal deposition experiment. The results showed that MAC3 had the best performance and the flocculation onset of crude oil increased from −20.5 to 3.89 when the dosage of MAC3 was 150 mg/L. The anti-scaling rate of MAC3 was 60% in dynamic thermal deposition experiment of blended crude oil.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphaltene
• deposition
• dispersant
• flocculation onset
• anti-scaling rate