Integrated One-Dimensional Modeling of Asphaltene Deposition in Wellbores/Pipelines

—Asphaltene deposition in wellbores/pipelines causes serious production losses in the oil and gas industry. This work presents a numerical model to predict asphaltene deposition in
wellbores/pipelines. This model consists of two modules: a Thermodynamic Module and a Transport Module. The Thermodynamic Module models asphaltene precipitation using the Peng-Robinson Equation of State with Peneloux volume translation (PR-Peneloux EOS). The Transport Module covers the modeling of fluid transport, asphaltene particle transport and asphaltene deposition. These
modules are combined via a thermodynamic properties lookup-table generated by the Thermodynamic Module prior to simulation. In this
work, the Transport Module and the Thermodynamic Module are first verified and validated separately. Then, the integrated model is
applied to an oilfield case with asphaltene deposition problem where a reasonably accurate prediction of asphaltene deposit profile is
achieved