Asphaltene Erosion Process in Air Plasma: Emission Spectroscopy and Surface Analysis for Air-Plasma Reactions

Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) was applied for plasma characterization during the erosion of asphaltene substrates. An amount of 100 mg of asphaltene was carefully applied to an electrode and exposed to air-plasma glow discharge at a pressure of 1.0 Torr. The plasma was generated in a stainless steel discharge chamber by an ac generator at a frequency of 60 Hz, output power of 50 W and a gas flow rate of 1.8 L/min . The electron temperature and ion density were estimated to be 2.15 ± 0.11 eV and (1.24±0.05) × 1016 m-3, respectively, using a double Langmuir probe. OES was employed to observe the emission from the asphaltene exposed to air plasma. Both molecular band emission from N2, N2+, OH, CH, NH, O2 as well as CN, and atomic light emission from V and Hγ were observed and used to monitor the evolution of asphaltene erosion. The asphaltene erosion was analyzed with the aid of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) detector. The EDX analysis showed that the time evolution of elements C, O, S and V were similar; and the chemical composition of the exposed asphaltenes remained constant. Particle size evolution was measured, showing a maximum size of 2307 μm after 60 min. This behavior is most likely related to particle agglomeration as a function of time.