Advanced optical microscopies applied to the study of the onset of asphaltene precipitation in crude oil enriched with natural gas or carbon dioxide

Abstract

The goal of the present work is to characterize asphalthene in precipitate form, obtained from natural oil as well as from solutions containing asphalthene. The experimental methods used will employ a variety of advanced optical microscopy techniques, including confocal Raman and fluorescence microscopy, and phase contrast optical microscopy. Hopefully, this approach will allow us to obtain new insights about the asphalthene precipitate: (I) electronic and vibrational properties, (II) morphology in 3 dimensions, (III) precipitation kinetics; (IV) morphology/spectrum/time correlations; (IV) refractive index; (V) refractive index contrast. The results obtained will be correlatd with the studies in solution, in order to determine the observables that characterize the onset of asphalthene precipitation. Such information is essential to the design and construction of a laser-based instrument capable of performing remote-sensing under various conditions of pressure, temperature, and solution composition. (AU)