Detection of Precipitation in Pipelines

Zaman, Musharraf; Bjorndalen, N.; Islam, M.R.

doi:10.1081/lft-200034063

Cited by 24 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Possible transportation methods of heavy crude oils are dilution/blending of the heavy crudes with lighter ones or organic solvents, heating of the crude oil, development of a water sheath surrounding the high viscosity crude, and use of pour point depressants (PPDs). Heating of pipeline may not be economically viable option in every case, also the availability of diluent may not be always feasible, and any change in oil composition requires modification in oil/solvent ratio . PPDs are chemical additives that affect the wax crystallization structure and depress the viscosity and pour point of crude oil, but the challenges lie in dosage of PPDs at regular intervals in pipelines, thereby increasing the cost and complexity of project.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Heating of pipeline may not be economically viable option in every case, also the availability of diluent may not be always feasible, and any change in oil composition requires modification in oil/solvent ratio. 14 PPDs are chemical additives that affect the wax crystallization structure and depress the viscosity and pour point of crude oil, 15 but the challenges lie in dosage of PPDs at regular intervals in pipelines, thereby increasing the cost and complexity of project. Other possible methods include transportation of viscous and heavy crude as oilin-water (O/W) emulsion having reduced viscosities that are feasible for pipeline transportation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Study the influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate on emulsification of heavy and waxy crude oils to improve their flow ability in low temperature conditions

Sharma

Deka

Mandal

et al. 2018

Asia-Pacific J Chem Eng

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Transportation of heavy and waxy crude oils through pipelines is a problem in many regions of the world where low temperatures are observed usually in offshore conditions due to wax and asphaltene precipitation. Transporting them as oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion through pipelines is one of the feasible flow assurance solutions. In this research work, O/W emulsions using anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate are prepared for two Indian crude oil samples having significant asphaltene and wax deposition potential and effect of emulsification on the flow properties of these crude oils are thoroughly analyzed. It is found that the prepared emulsions have very stable phase volume composition up to 50 days at ambient conditions, and they are thermally stable in the temperature range 20–45°C. Emulsions of heavy crude oil are found to be relatively more stable than that of waxy crude with time and temperatures. Fifty percent (v/v) is the observed optimized oil content in the prepared o/w emulsions for both the crude oils at optimum surfactant concentration that is critical micelle concentration (CMC). The prepared emulsions have viscosities as low as 0.01 Pa s and pour point as low as less than 0°C, ensuring easy flow at low temperatures, suited for pipeline transportation at subsea conditions. Interfacial tension and surface tension values of waxy crude‐water system and its o/w emulsions respectively are higher than that of heavy crude‐water system and its O/W emulsions, which indicate difficulty in waxy crude oil transportation compared with heavy crude oil.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study the influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate on emulsification of heavy and waxy crude oils to improve their flow ability in low temperature conditions

Sharma

Deka

Mandal

et al. 2018

Asia-Pacific J Chem Eng

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A common approach frequently used in the petroleum industry to transport heavy crude oils is by dilution, i.e., blending heavy crude oils with lighter crude oils; however, for particular properties of the blend components under certain conditions of pressure, temperature, or flow regime, asphaltenes are prone to precipitate. − Asphaltenes are aromatic in nature and rich in heteroatoms (S, N, and O) and metals, such as Fe, Ni, V, and Cu, among others. − This fraction is defined in terms of its solubility; i.e., asphaltenes are soluble in aromatics and insoluble in low-molecular-weight alkanes. ,,− …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Then, interactions between asphaltenes make the particle size grow, causing flocculation (Figure c), until equilibrium is no longer attained, and asphaltenes precipitate forming deposits (Figure d). Because of this, the production of crude oil is stopped sometimes for cleaning pipelines and process equipment. ,,,− …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Setups for Studying the Compatibility of Crude Oil Blends under Dynamic Conditions

et al. 2016

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Blending of different crude oils is currently carried out in the petroleum industry. However, under certain process conditions, i.e., pressure, temperature, flow regime, composition, etc., asphaltene precipitation and plugging of pipelines and process equipment commonly occur, which cause production shutdowns; therefore, special cleaning programs need to be developed. To avoid these problems, it is first necessary to evaluate the compatibility of crude oil blends through a study of asphaltene stability. Most of the available tests are focused on analyzing crude oils under standard conditions, i.e., temperature, pressure, solvent/oil ratio, or static testing; however, studies at dynamic conditions are scarce. Dynamic testing is a more representative approach to correlate experimental information with data of transportation of crude oils, where pressure, temperature, and flow regimes influence crude oil stability and compatibility. In this work, the literature reports of dynamic experimental setups are summarized and analyzed, whereby asphaltene deposition and precipitation are typically studied.

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“…Dilution with gas condensates and/or light crude oils is an expensive choice due to the amounts of diluents needed to achieve significant viscosity reduction (Yaghi and Al-Bemani 2002;Martínez-Palou et al 2011). Moreover, asphaltene precipitation due to mixing with incompatible crude oils (Zahan et al 2004) might result in pipeline blockage. Pumping the heavy crude oils at high temperatures requires special designs to insulate the pipeline to preserve the oil temperature produced at the wellhead or the increase in temperature obtained through electrical heating (Martínez-Palou et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transportation of heavy oils using polymer-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions

Al-Hashmi

Al-Wahaibi

et al. 2016

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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The increase in demand for crude oil and the depletion of light crude oil reserves have led to increase in the production of heavy crude oils. This has resulted in an interest in decreasing the pumping costs by techniques such as heating, dilution and/or mixing with water. Among the aforementioned methods, emulsification of heavy crude oil with water is the cheapest, and hence, optimizing its application has found increasing attention. This study uses one of the heavy crude oils in Oman to study the viscosity reduction achieved by emulsification with water at different oil fractions, temperatures, shear rates and salt content. Two chemicals were used to stabilize the emulsions, namely a nonionic surfactant and an anionic, high molecular weight polymer. It was found that viscosity reduction higher than 90% can be obtained through the creation of oil-in-water emulsions with oil content of less than 70%. Generally, it was found that there is no effect on the viscosity reduction obtainable from oil-in-water emulsions produced using the nonionic surfactant at shear rate up to 1620 s-1 , temperature up to 80°C and salt content up to 2.0 wt%. On the other hand, the viscosity reduction using water-in-oil emulsions at a temperature of 30°C increases with surfactant concentration and shear rate. Also, the increase in salt content adversely affected the viscosity reduction obtained using water-in-oil emulsions. Moreover, it was possible to create oil-in-water emulsions with 60% oil content and viscosity reduction of around 100% in tap water using 100 and 1000 ppm polymer at all temperatures investigated. However, the use of 2.0 wt% salt resulted in

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Detection of Precipitation in Pipelines

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Study the influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate on emulsification of heavy and waxy crude oils to improve their flow ability in low temperature conditions

Study the influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate on emulsification of heavy and waxy crude oils to improve their flow ability in low temperature conditions

Experimental Setups for Studying the Compatibility of Crude Oil Blends under Dynamic Conditions

Transportation of heavy oils using polymer-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions

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