thermodynamic modeling of asphaltene phase behavior using pc-saft eos with two different methods for asphaltene characterization

Asphaltene precipitation and deposition have always been a major issue in the oil industry# in this research, asphaltene precipitation in a live oil has been modeled using pc-saft eos# two different methods for characterization of asphaltene are employed and compared# the first method of characterization has been applied for modeling of the oil in previous researches# according to this method, aromaticity of aromatics + resins, aromaticity of asphaltene, as well as molecular weight of asphaltene should be tuned# but in the second method, molecular weight of asphaltene is considered fixed, and the number of adjustable parameters is reduced to two# asphaltene onset pressure is predicted using both methods# the results obtained from the first method show better agreement to the experimental data, and its aad is 12% to 40% less than method #2#