Effect of Different Families of Hydrophobic Anions of Imadazolium Ionic Liquids on Asphaltene Dispersants in Heavy Crude Oil

Asphaltene aggregations of heavy crude oils provoke their destabilization and affect their viscosity significantly during their production, transportation, and refining. This problem was produced from phase separation and asphaltene particle growth. Recently, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted more attention as a green solvent to solve these problems. In the present work, new ILs based on the imidazolium cation and organic salt anions such as oleate, abietate, and m-alkyl phenoxy were prepared at room temperature and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and thermal analyses. These ILs were evaluated as asphaltene dispersants for Arabic heavy crude oil. The molecular interactions between the prepared ILs and asphaltenes were proven from zeta potential and asphaltene particle size variations. The effect of IL concentrations on asphaltene dispersion and viscosity values of crude oils is investigated at different temperatures. The ability of the prepared ILs to reduce the viscosity of the crude oil was investigated and arranged in the order of ILs that contained hydrophenancerene groups more than that contained alkyl groups or phenoxygroups as the anion.