A method for blending at least two
hydrocarbon liquids, the method comprising: (a) determining the critical
solvent power for each
hydrocarbon liquid by (i) mixing each
hydrocarbon liquid with predetermined amounts of a paraffin; (ii) centrifuging each resulting mixture; (iii) recovering and weighing any resulting precipitated insolubles from step (ii); and (iv) correlating the weight of the insolubles in step (iii) to the
solvent power at which asphaltenes begin to precipitate out of the hydrocarbon; (b) determining the
solvent power for each hydrocarbon liquid by: (i) determining the
distillation curve and density of each hydrocarbon liquid; (ii) numerically integrating the
distillation curve of each hydrocarbon liquid, producing the
volume average boiling point for each hydrocarbon liquid; (iii) calculating the characterization K factor for each hydrocarbon liquid using the
volume average boiling point in step (ii); and (iv) determining the solvent power of each hydrocarbon liquid using the characterization K factor in step (iii), wherein
heptane and
toluene are used as solvent power references wherein
heptane has a solvent power of zero and
toluene has a solvent power of 100; and (c) blending the each
crude oil into each other producing a
crude oil blend wherein the solvent power of the
crude oil blend is greater than the critical solvent power of the crude oil having the highest critical solvent power in the blend.