Prediction Model between Emulsified Water Fractions and Physicochemical Properties of Crude Oil Based on the Exergy Loss Rate

Wen, Jiangbo; Luo, Haijun; Ai, Gang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c02819

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…During the exploitation of both offshore and onshore oilfields in the world, crude oil–water mixed transportation technology is widely used, which is an important method for gathering and transportation of the produced fluid. In the mixed transportation pipeline, the crude oil–water two-phase system tends to form an emulsion, which has an apparent effect on the flow characteristics of the multiphase flow. − When the water cut of the system is low, the mixture of crude oil and water is completely emulsified and generally forms a stable W/O emulsion; however, when the water cut of the system exceeds a certain critical value, that is, phase inversion point (PIP), the original stable W/O emulsion will abruptly convert into an unstable O/W emulsion. Thereupon, after the phase inversion of the crude oil emulsion (COE) occurs, the viscosity characteristics of the COE and the hydraulic friction of the mixed transportation pipeline will be greatly reduced, thus affecting the pipeline flow characteristics. − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of the Phase Inversion Point of Crude Oil Emulsion by Characterization of Crude Oil Physical Properties

et al. 2022

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Accurate prediction of the phase inversion point (PIP) of crude oil emulsion (COE) will give important guiding significance to the mixed transportation technology during the crude oil mining process. The influence of water cut of a system on viscosity characteristics of the COE was studied by emulsification experiments with 16 kinds of crude oils having significant differences in physical properties. The results showed that under the condition of low water cut of a system, the crude oils can emulsify all the water to form stable W/O emulsions with apparent viscosities much higher than those of pure crude oils. When the water cut of a system exceeds a certain critical value, the crude oils have no ability to emulsify all water; instead, they are wrapped by a water phase and form unstable O/W emulsions, and their apparent viscosities decrease sharply compared with those of pure crude oils. The critical water cut of a system corresponding to the abrupt change of apparent viscosity of the COE is the PIP of the COE changing from the type of W/O to O/W. Furthermore, the apparent viscosities of stable W/O emulsions decrease with increasing shear rate and temperature and meanwhile increase dramatically with the increasing water cut of a system. The apparent viscosities of unstable O/W emulsions decrease with increasing shear rate, water cut of a system, and temperature and are far lower than those of pure crude oils. Four typical parameters were chose as the representation to describe the crude oil physical properties (COPPs), that is, the content of saturates, the content of aromatics, the content of surfactants, and the crude oil acid number. On the basis of the quantitative description of COPPs, a prediction model for the PIP of the COE was established. The results of model verification showed that the mean relative deviation of prediction results was 2.9%.

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