Fluidity Change by Hydroxyl-Carboxyl Group Interaction with Asphaltenes in Heavy Crude Oil

Asphaltene or paraffin are the main compounds that produce high viscosity in extra-heavy crude oil that could precipitate during transport or interaction with some compounds like viscosity reducers or flow enhancers. Additives interact with these fractions allowing heavy-phase dispersion and viscosity reduction. We analyzed interaction among heavy molecules presented in crude and carboxyl part, by energy calculation as the multiple minimum hypersurfaces, and developing of a stochastic model, finding the behavior of heavy phase aggregation and viscosity change according to a carboxyl-enhancer concentration. We found that molecular geometry and molecule with carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, as active compounds, considering a biodiesel molecule, affect the additive efficiency, allowing aggregation reduction with the presence of the functional group. We also conducted laboratory experiments comparing theoretical and experimental results.