Wax deposition under low temperature conditions is a serious problem observed in pipelines transporting crude oil. Herein, three terpolymeric additives; styrene octadecyl acrylate maleic anhydride terpolymer, and the corresponding ester and imide were synthesized through the free radical polymerization technique for the first time. The above mentioned terpolymers were assessed as pour point depressors and paraffin inhibitors for Egyptian waxy crude oil with different concentrations ranging between 50 ppm and 200 ppm. The characteristics of the synthesized terpolymers were investigated using FTIR, 1 H-NMR, and GPC techniques. The FTIR and 1 H-NMR results demonstrated the successful synthesis of the mentioned terpolymers via confirming their structures. Also, the GPC results revealed the high average molecular weights of the ester and imide terpolymers compared to the corresponding terpolymer. Reasonable depression effects were achieved by the addition of lower concentrations of the synthesized terpolymers to the Egyptian waxy crude oil. The N-containing terpolymer; styrene octadecyl acrylate maleic anhydride imide, with a low concentration of 200 ppm exhibited the highest effect on the waxy crude as it was able to depress the pour point by 15 °C from the initial blank (27 °C to 12 °C), and a paraffin inhibition of 88 %. Thus, the synthesized terpolymers can be considered as promising and applicable additives for depressing the pour points and inhibiting the paraffinic precipitates for the waxy crude oil.
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