Modeling the kinetics of asphaltene flocculation in toluenepentane systems for the case of sonicated crude oils

This work is concerned with the monitoring of ultrasound effects on inhibition, as well asthe reversible kinetics modeling of asphaltene flocculation in toluene-n-alkane systems, which hasbeen rarely reported in the literature. a crude oil sample was exposed to ultrasound waves, and thenthe colloidal structural evolutions of flocculated asphaltene particles induced by addition of n-alkanewere studied, using a confocal microscopy. observations confirmed that radiation of ultrasound canchange the irreversibility of asphaltene flocculation in crude oil. to interpret the kinetics of asphalteneflock aggregation, the smoluchowski model was used, and the time dependent size distribution ofasphaltene flocks was predicted. fractal analysis was applied and the parameters of the kinetic modelwere determined. the values for the regressed parameters of the kinetic model show that for sonicatedoil, the formation coefficient decreases, while the disintegration coefficient did not considerably change.the reason might be that sonication prevents flocks from aggregating rather than disintegrating theminto smaller flocks. it might be the reason for its lingering effect on flocculation. this work illustrates thesuccessful application of the smoluchowski model for predicting the kinetics of asphaltene flocks underthe influence of ultrasonic radiation for the entire range of reversible flocculation processes.