Importance of the Adsorption Method Used for Obtaining the Nanoparticle Dosage for Asphaltene-Related Treatments

The primary objective of this study is to show the importance of the adsorption method used in obtaining the nanoparticle dosage for inhibiting/remediating asphaltene-related problems. In this work, two methods for determining the adsorption isotherms for different asphaltenes onto three different types of nanoparticles were evaluated. The adsorption equilibrium of n-C7 asphaltenes was determined using batch-mode adsorption experiments that were performed in two different ways: (i) by exposing a certain mass of nanoparticles in a fixed volume of liquid with a varying initial concentration of asphaltenes and (ii) by exposing a given amount of asphaltenes in a fixed volume of liquid while varying the dosage of nanoparticles. The results obtained using these two methods were sufficient to determine the type I and III adsorption isotherms, respectively. These differences in behavior in adsorption isotherms can be due complexity of the n-C7 asphaltenes, which are self-associative molecules that impact directly...