Resumo

REMOLINA-CAMPOS, Sergio Arturo; ESPITIA-CASTELLANOS, Jaime; LUNA-CACERES, César Augusto  e  PATINO-REYES, Édgar Javier. An overview to development of viscosity reducer additives and its application in heavy crude oil transportation. Rev. ion [online]. 2019, vol.32, n.1, pp.35-48.  Epub 03-Jun-2019. ISSN 0120-100X.  https://doi.org/10.18273/revion.v32n1-2019003.

The present review is addressed the problem of heavy crude oil, due to its high viscosity, making it difficult to transport by pipeline and its direct relationship with the asphaltenes fraction, whose stacking generates changes in crude rheology, high pressure drops and energy requirements in pumping and even plugging of pipes. The reported investigations have focused on predicting and elucidating the structural composition of asphaltenes, from which are highlighted the models that describe asphaltenes as polycondensed aromatic ring systems that can be bound by van der Waals interactions in aggregates, also as hierarchical structures of ring systems of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), that ends in formation of bunches (clusters). The colloidal thermodynamic model is also highlighted, which predicts that the molecules of asphaltenes are suspended in a liquid phase, stabilized by resins adsorbed on its surface.

An alternative to reduce the viscosity of crudes is the inclusion of additives, which through appropriate molecular interactions generate the dispersion of asphaltenic aggregates, reflected in the decrease in viscosity. For them, when designing viscosity reducing additives for crude oils, it is important to design molecular structures with certain functional groups associated with amines, amides, alcohols, acids, among others, that favor interactions that generate asphaltene dispersion. Therefore, and in order to provide a broad overview of this line of research so extensive, this document is finalized with a review of some viscosity reducing additives implemented by different researchers.

Palavras-chave : Additive; Asphaltenes; Interactions; Nanoaggregate; Viscosity; Transport..

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