Patent ID: 8492154

Claim:
A method of determining fouling tendency of a hydrocarbon-containing feedstock comprising the steps of: (a) preparing a liquid sample of said hydrocarbon-containing feedstock, said hydrocarbon-containing feedstock having asphaltenes that include different asphaltene fractions of different polarity; (b) precipitating at least some of said asphaltenes from said liquid sample with one or more precipitants in a chromatographic column; (c) dissolving at least two of said different asphaltene fractions from said precipitated asphaltenes during a successive dissolution protocol that uses dissolving solvents of increasing strength; (d) eluting said at least two different dissolved asphaltene fractions from said chromatographic column; (e) detecting said at least two eluted fractions with a liquid chromatography detector to generate a detector signal for each said eluted fraction; wherein said step of detecting comprises monitoring the amount of said eluted fractions from said chromatographic column with said liquid chromatography detector, and wherein said signal is proportional to the amount of each said eluted fraction, (f) using said signals to calculate a percentage of each peak area for a first amount and a second amount of dissolved asphaltenes relative to the total peak areas, wherein the peak areas are derived from the signals, to determine a parameter that relates to fouling tendency of said hydrocarbon-containing feedstock; and (g) determining said fouling tendency of said hydrocarbon-containing feedstock from said parameter.