Asphaltene Extraction Capacity of Different Solvents

The ability of paraffinic solvents to reduce the asphaltene content of crude oil was investigated. The solvent n-pentane is added to the crude oil and the asphaltene precipitate was filtered and dried at room temperature. The crude and the precipitate were analysed with GC/MS to further investigate the metallic and non-metallic contents. This experimental procedure was then repeated with n-hexane and n-heptane. Another set of experiments were conducted using a mixture of two solvents at ratios 1:1 and 3:1. For single solvent extraction, the results showed that n-pentane extracted more asphaltenes content of 23.2 g/mL compared to hexane 22.3 g/mL and heptane 22.2 g/mL. Whereas for mixed solvent extraction, the best solvent was that of a hexane-pentane solution of ratio 3:1 with asphaltenes content of 25.2 g/mL followed by that of Pentane-Heptane at ratio 3:1 with asphaltenes content of 25.09 g/mL.