Selection of best apshaltene controlling chemical additive for crude oil using strategic sensitivity of weight criteria importance in TOPSIS method

The main aim of this work is to determine performance ranking of asphaltene controlling chemical additives using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The performance of four chemicals namely; Cocamide Diethanolamide (CDEA), Dodecyl Benzene Sulphonic Acid (DBSA), Salicylic Acid, and Toluene were evaluated on crude oil of Pakistani origin. The performance of chemical additives was evaluated before and after the initiation of asphaltene precipitation as chemical performance during pre-treatment and post-treatment stage respectively. TOPSIS method was used to incorporate different parameter of experiment as criteria and further the weight of criteria importance were altered to yield rankings of chemicals under different scenarios. Three cases were developed to implement TOPSIS method. For case – 1 and Case – 2, generally, DBSA found to be the best additive while for case – 3 Salicylic acid and Toluene was proved to be rank 1 additive. The alteration of weight importance of criteria affects the chemical additive ranking. This research work highlighted the importance of decision making process for the selection of chemical additives considering the desired specific role of chemical additive to be used for the prevention and mitigation of asphaltene deposition in crude oil.