The "+" fraction of a petroleum fluid is a complex mixture that has long defied traditional chemical and thermodynamic treatments. Quantities such as asphaltenes and resins are solubility classes and as such are particularly difficult to characterize. Despite generations of study with ever more powerful scientific tools, the research community still has difficulty determining the physical and chemical properties of asphaltenes and there is still no agreement regarding how they should be studied. To some extent these difficulties may be inherent in the complexity of the petroleum fluids, but they have also been exacerbated by acceptance of conventional wisdom.
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