Developing a Millifluidic Flow Analysis System for Asphaltene Content Reduction in Crude Oil via Liquid-Liquid Extraction with Variable Parameters

Solvent deasphalting (SDA) of the actual heavy crude oil is one of the most critical processes in the petroleum industry, which improves the specifications of low-quality crude oil. The work shows heavy crude oil with an asphaltene content of 2.49 wt % taken from the Samawah oil refinery in southern Iraq was deasphalted using a homemade flow system with several variables. The significant variables impacting the deasphalting process were identified using the central composite design (CCD) and response surface method (RSM). The optimum conditions of the deasphalting process are n-heptane solvent, a flow rate of 31 mL/min, a mixing coil length of 172 cm, a temperature of 32°C, and a time of 3 s. It was determined that the impact of using variables occurs in the following order: mixing coil length > temperature > solvent flow rate > time in n-heptane solvent. The experimental and theoretical efficiencies of the deasphalting technique for heavy crude oil were found to be 57.94 and 56.26%, respectively.