Quantitative Determination of Asphaltenes and Resins in Solution by Means of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Correlations to Emulsion Stability.

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in the range 1100-2250 nm together with a latent-variable regression technique is used to analyze the content of asphaltene and resins in solution. It is shown that this technique is capable of determining the amount of these components individually. w/o emulsions were prepared from the separated components of asphaltenes and resins from crude oils. The stability was directly determined with the critical voltage in a dielectric instrumentation. The emulsion stability decreased linearly with an increase in the resin/asphaltene ratio. A final linear model correlating the critical voltage and the analytical concentrations (from the NIR spectra) could be established for this model system. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.