Performance Evaluation and Modeling of the Adsorption Behavior of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized by the Sol-Gel Method in the Adsorption of Asphaltene Extracted from Crude Oil

The asphaltene present in crude oil creates various challenges for its production, processing, and transportation, with the most important ones being wellbore and pipeline fouling, deactivation, and poisoning of catalysts. In this study, the adsorption of asphaltene extracted from a crude oil sample on five iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized by the Pechini method, in the presence and absence of propylene oxide and polyethylene glycol as common agents used in the sol-gel method for gel formation, was investigated. Solutions with different percentages of asphaltene and toluene were prepared, and a specific amount of iron nanoparticles (4 g/l) was added to the solutions. The mixtures were shaken for 15 hours at 250 rpm. The unknown concentration of the samples was determined by UV-visible analysis. The results indicated that the iron oxide synthesized without propylene oxide and polyethylene glycol, with an adsorption capacity of 37.31%, exhibited the best performance in asphaltene adsorption and was economically more viable. The adsorption results were described using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, and the physical properties of the nanoparticles were determined by XRD and BET analyses.