Effect of the structures of ionic liquids and alkylbenzene-derived amphiphiles on the inhibition of asphaltene precipitation from CO2-injected reservoir oils.

The inhibition of asphaltene precipitation from high-pressure, CO(2)-injected reservoir oils by ionic and nonionic amphiphiles, the ionic liquids based on p-alkylpyridinium (C(n)()py) and N-butylisoquinolinium (C(4)iql) cations, and the alkylbenzene-derived amphiphiles p-alkylphenol (C(n)()phol), p-alkylbenzenesulfonic acid (C(n)()bsa), and sodium p-alkylbenzenesulfonate (C(n)()bsNa) was investigated for the first time. The influences of the structures of these compounds and the effect of the combination of their cations and anions were studied. The results show that the inhibition abilities of the alkylbenzene-derived amphiphiles first increase when n = 2-8 and then remain almost constant when n >/=8 and that the effectiveness follows the order C(n)()phol < C(n)()bsa approximately C(n)()bsNa. The inverse trend is observed for the ionic liquids [C(n)()py][Cl]; that is, their inhibition abilities decrease as n increases from 4 to 8 to 12. [C(4)iql][Cl] is more effective than [C(4)py][Cl], but [C(n)()py][BF(4)] and [C(n)()py][PF(6)] have almost no effect on the stabilization of asphaltenes. It was found that the effectiveness of an alkylbenzene-derived amphiphile on the inhibition of asphaltene precipitation from reservoir oils relies on its ability to form a stable steric-stabilization layer around asphaltenes, which is controlled by the polarity of its headgroup and the length of its alkyl tail. The novel mechanism of inhibiting asphaltene precipitation using the ionic liquids [C(n)()py] ([Cl], [BF(4)], and [PF(6)]) and [C(4)iql][Cl] was proposed. The mechanism states that the ionic liquids can effectively prevent asphaltene precipitation from the reservoir oils by breaking the asphaltene associations, which are due to the local nonneutrality of the charge densities of the cation and the anion. The ionic liquids that are based on an anion with high charge density, in connection with cations with sufficiently low charge densities, can effectively inhibit asphaltene precipitation from the reservoir oils. This mechanism is also important for studying the thermodynamic properties and phase behavior of the ionic liquids.