ЭЭЭ - нефть - газ - нанотехнологии

Currently, in scientific modeling as well as in industrial applications natural petroleum media and their components (in particular, disperse phases) are commonly regarded as systems evolving under thermodynamic control. In other words, it is commonly assumed that physico-chemical parameters of petroleum are uniquely determined by the current thermodynamic parameters (first of all, by the current pressure ant temperature). These assumptions are employed for evaluation of the possible effects of various technological operations – e.g. thermal treatment in oil reservoirs, transportation and storage equipment; pressure depletion as a result of oil/gas production; intermixing of different migrating fluids in course of reservoir development, etc.

< style="font-weight: bold;"> Our experiments have shown that the current state (configuration, structure) of a disperse phase in petroleum is critically determined by kinetic control. At the same set of thermodynamic parameters various long-lived states of a disperse phase may co-exist. Each of these states has a unique “individual history” (has been achieved as a result of a specific succession of reactions/transformations/transitions).

In particular, for asphaltene dispersions of critical importance are their individual “thermal histories” in the range of industrial temperatures. E.g., a short-time thermal treatment at 28-30^oC results in a noticeable restructuring of asphaltene colloids – dimension of colloid particles, as well as their interaction energies, increase; interactions with other petroleum components also are strongly affected. At lower temperatures the new state of asphaltene colloids is thermodynamically non-equilibrium. However, owing to kinetic control the newly-acquired properties may be retained over periods of several months/years (i.e. there is a certain “long-term thermal memory”).