With substantial contributions from experienced industrial scientists and engineers, this work will have real application towards improving process efficiency and improvement in the trillion-dollar global petroleum industry. It presents an overview of the emerging field of petroleomics, which endeavors to understand the fundamental components of crude oil. Petroleomics promises to revolutionize petroleum science in much the same way that genomics transformed the study of medicine not long ago. Asphaltenes are a particular focus, with many chapters devoted to the analysis of their structure and properties.

Petroleomics and Structure¿Function Relations of Crude Oils and Asphaltenes.- Asphaltene Molecular Size and Weight by Time-Resolved Fluorescence Depolarization.- Petroleomics: Advanced Characterization of Petroleum-Derived Materials by Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR MS).- Molecular Orbital Calculations and Optical Transitions of PAHs and Asphaltenes.- Carbon X-ray Raman Spectroscopy of PAHs and Asphaltenes.- Sulfur Chemical Moieties in Carbonaceous Materials.- Micellization.- Insights into Molecular and Aggregate Structures of Asphaltenes Using HRTEM.- Ultrasonic Spectroscopy of Asphaltene Aggregation.- Asphaltene Self-Association and Precipitation in Solvents¿AC Conductivity Measurements.- Molecular Composition and Dynamics of Oils from Diffusion Measurements.- Application of the PC-SAFT Equation of State to Asphaltene Phase Behavior.- Application of Isothermal Titration Calorimetry in the Investigation of Asphaltene Association.- Petroleomics and Characterization of Asphaltene Aggregates Using Small Angle Scattering.- Self-Assembly of Asphaltene Aggregates: Synchrotron, Simulation and Chemical Modeling Techniques Applied to Problems in the Structure and Reactivity of Asphaltenes.- Solubility of the Least-Soluble Asphaltenes.- Dynamic Light Scattering Monitoring of Asphaltene Aggregation in Crude Oils and Hydrocarbon Solutions.- Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Study Asphaltene Aggregation in Solvents.- Phase Behavior of Heavy Oils.- Selective Solvent Deasphalting for Heavy Oil Emulsion Treatment.- The Role of Asphaltenes in Stabilizing Water-in-Crude Oil Emulsions.- Live Oil Sample Acquisition and Downhole Fluid Analysis.- Precipitation and Deposition of Asphaltenes in Production Systems: A Flow Assurance Overview.