Experimental, modelling and optimisation of asphaltene deposition and adsorption in porous media

The deposition of asphaltene is considered to be one of the most difficult problems during oil production. Asphaltene deposition in the reservoir is a complex problem; and, due to the depth of reservoirs, it is impossible to do field experiments. Thus, to study the effects of asphaltene deposition, it is essential to rely on different models that are developed for asphaltene adsorption and deposition on the basis of the laboratory experimental results. In this manuscript, the focus is on the adsorption and deposition of asphaltene in porous media. A new model for asphaltene adsorption and deposition in porous media and a corresponding numerical method are developed using an implicit scheme. A procedure for estimating the asphaltene deposition and adsorption parameters is described, and a new optimisation method is introduced. This method applies the genetic algorithm to investigate an initial set of parameters as an input for the direct search optimisation method. The direct search estimates the asphaltene deposition and adsorption parameters, which results in an acceptable match with the experimental data. To validate the model, both the available experimental data in the literature and data from this study are examined with the developed model; and, reasonable results are obtained. (C) 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering