EFFECT OF EXCESS SINGLE n ALKANE SOLVENTS ON HEAVY ORGANIC PRECIPITATION IN CRUDE OIL FROM AFIESERE OIL FIELD
Heavy organics (HOs) precipitation is one of the flow assurance problems for the oil and gas industries. Precipitation can be significantly affected by the changes in composition, temperature and pressure of crude oil. Five (5) normal alkanes nC 5 nC 6 nC 7 nC 8 and nC 10 were used and the amount of heavy organics precipitation determined. The Heavy Organic weight percentage (wt. decreases as the molecular weight of the precipitating solvents (precipitant) increases (nC 5 to nC 10 nC 5 has a wt. of 1.64+ 0.01 HO precipitated, nC 6 1.06+ 0.01; nC 7 1.04+ 0.00; nC 8 0.97+ 0.01 and nC 10 0.78+ 0.01. Therefore, nC 10 is a better solvent for HO precipitation than nC 8 nC 8 better than nC 7 nC 7 better than nC 6 and nC 6 better than nC 5 This may be due to the solvent power of the precipitant, the solubility factor and polarity effect of the individual n alkanes present in the crude oil medium. Keywords: Heavy Organics, Precipitation, Crude oil, normal alkanes,