Search

During EOR recovery processes, asphaltenes macromolecules can flocculate and cause drastic changes in the petrophysical properties of the reservoir, therefore it is very important to determine the time at the flocculation begins and further the size of the aggregates, since ultimately this depends on whether these can be trapped in the porous media. This work aims to evaluate the change in the asphaltene hydrodynamic radius of at different concentrations of n-heptane and to detect the onset asphaltene floculation using a new technique known as 1H Diffusion ordered spectroscopy-NMR (DOSY-NMR). H-DOSY NMR is a method based on the pulsed field gradient spin-echo from nuclear magnetic resonance (PFGSE NMR) and it allows the identification of the molecular components of a mixture sample and at the same time obtain information of their size through the diffusion coefficient. For our specific case, the asphaltene hydrodynamic radius was 16.8 Å and the onset of asphaltene floculation can be observed when the concentration of solvent n-heptane was 30 wt %.