Active Heating For Flow Assurance Control in Deepwater Flowlines

Esaklul, Khlefa A.; Fung, Gee; Harrison, G.H.; Perego, Ron

doi:10.4043/15188-ms

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Various preventative and remedial means are used to control wax deposition. These include mechanical, thermal, and chemical methodsor combinations thereof. − The preferred control method will depend on the specifics of the field. Mechanical methods include pigging and cutting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

Jennings

Weispfennig

2006

Energy Fuels

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Paraffin inhibitors are chemicals that are used to reduce deposition of paraffin/wax onto surfaces of flow lines. For some crude oil production systems, paraffin inhibitors can provide significant reduction in wax deposition and be an economically attractive means for increasing production and/or decreasing wax remediation control costs. Paraffin inhibitors function by incorporating into wax deposit structures, altering the deposit structure in order to reduce the deposits' ability to adhere. Generally, effective inhibitors create weaker deposits which are more susceptible to removal from shear forces in the flow field. As such, the performance of the inhibitors can be related to the shear forces present in respective flow streams. In this paper, results of coldfinger experiments using four Gulf of Mexico crude oils are presented to illustrate the effect of shear on inhibitor performance. Trends from the data indicate that inhibitor performance improves with increasing shear. From the test results, the percent inhibition in the amount of depositing wax (for inhibitor treated crude oil tests compared to untreated crude oil tests) was consistently observed to increase with increasing shear in the various experiments. The amount of coldfinger surface area bare of deposition was similarly found to consistently increase with increasing shear. The percent inhibition of the amount of total deposit weight (deposited wax with entrained crude oil) did not always increase with increasing shear thoughseven decreasing in many cases. This is not related to a reduction of inhibitor performance but rather due to variation in the untreated deposit reference with shear. As the amount of entrained crude oil in a deposit decreases with increasing shear, the percent change on the total deposit weight (deposited wax plus entrained crude oil) will vary for a paraffin inhibitor's effect on a fixed amount of deposited wax species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

Jennings

Weispfennig

2006

Energy Fuels

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“…For most fields, the goal is to stay above the region of 15 to 40 • C [161]. Therefore, the active heating method is used for many situations in flowlines [49,76], such as the prevention of cooldown and warming up of non-flowing systems like (e.g., during shutdown or startup) [49,168], sustaining and increasing temperature while flowing [49]; decreasing the need for chemical injection [49,76] Compared to passive insulation, active heating can sustain the hydrocarbon fluid temperature beyond the hydrates and wax formations temperatures over long periods [49,76]. Three heating systems exist; Hot Water Circulation (HWC), Electrically Heat-Traced Flowline (EHTF), and Direct Electrical Heating (DEH) as shown in Figure 10a.…”

Section: Active Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Flow Assurance Heat Management Systems in Subsea Flowlines

et al. 2021

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The enormous cost of handling the challenges of flow assurance in subsea wells, flowlines, and risers, especially in deepwater applications, has necessitated a proactive approach to prevent their risk of occurrence. To ensure that transportation of the hydrocarbon is economical and efficient from the subsea wellhead to the processing units, a flow assurance heat management system is relevant in the design and planning of a fluid transport system. Consequently, the advancement of new technologies to serve the increasing need by exploring the technologically challenging and hostile subsea fields is of great importance. A comparative study on heat management systems in flowlines was conducted from the top five publishers (Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Sage) based on the number of publications to determine the level of work done by researchers in the last decade, the figures from the study showed the need for scientific research in the field of active heating. Additionally, a review was implemented to ascertain the likely advantages and drawbacks of each technique, its limitations concerning field applications and then recommend suitable cost-effective technique(s). The active heating system gives the most cost-effective solution for subsea deepwater fields.

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“…Some technologies are currently used in the field, such as mechanical, thermal, and chemical methods. [16][17][18] The widely used chemical methods are simple and accessible. There are different mechanisms of wax prevention by paraffin inhibitors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the performance of low-dosage hydrate inhibitors combined with wax inhibitors for a mixed CH₄-CO₂ gas hydrate formation

Lang

et al. 2015

Can. J. Chem.

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Within the oil and gas industry, low-dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs) are a proven technology to control hydrates. Besides hydrate inhibitors, wax inhibitors (WIs) are frequently injected to prevent wax buildup in the crude oil pipeline. However, little attention has been focused on the effect of wax inhibitors on the performance of LDHIs. In this study, performance tests of 3 LDHIs in the presence of wax inhibitors were carried out for a 67% CH 4 /33% CO 2 gas hydrate formation. Using the isothermal cooling method at pressures of 9 MPa and temperatures of 4°C (subcooling is 9°C), the results showed that the induction time of CH 4 -CO 2 gas hydrate formation with LDHI/WI was shorter than the system with only LDHI. During the growth period, when the concentration of the WIs was 1 mass%, the growth time of the system with LDHI/WI was prolonged. Taking the induction time and the growth time into consideration, it was found that WIs had a more negative impact on the kinetic hydrate inhibitor performance at low dosage. The effect of WIs at high concentration could be negligible.Résumé : Au sein de l'industrie pétrolière, l'utilisation d'inhibiteurs d'hydrates à faible dose est un moyen reconnu pour maîtriser la formation d'hydrates. Outre les inhibiteurs d'hydrates, des inhibiteurs de cire sont couramment injectés pour prévenir la formation de cire durant le transport du pétrole brut dans les pipelines. Toutefois, les effets des inhibiteurs de cire sur le rendement des inhibiteurs d'hydrates à faible dose ont peu été étudiés. Dans la présente étude, à l'aide d'une méthode de refroidissement isotherme, à une pression de 9 MPa et une température de 4°C (température de sous-refroidissement de 9°C), nous avons évalué le rendement de trois inhibiteurs d'hydrates à faible dose en présence d'inhibiteurs de cire dans des essais portant sur la formation d'hydrates de gaz composés à 67 % de méthane (CH 4 ) et 33 % de dioxyde de carbone (CO 2 ). Les résultats ont révélé que la période d'induction de la formation des hydrates de CH 4 et CO 2 en présence des deux types d'inhibiteurs était plus courte que dans le système comportant seulement un inhibiteur d'hydrates à faible dose. Au cours de la période de croissance, lorsque la concentration de l'inhibiteur de cire représentait 1 % p/p, la période de croissance dans le système en présence des deux types d'inhibiteurs était prolongée. En prenant en compte les périodes d'induction et de croissance, nous avons constaté que les inhibiteurs de cire avaient des effets plus délétères sur le rendement des inhibiteurs cinétiques lorsque ceux-ci étaient utilisés à faible dose, alors qu'à concentration élevée, l'effet des inhibiteurs de cire pourrait être négligeable. [Traduit par la Rédaction]Mots-clés : hydrate de gaz, inhibiteur d'hydrates à faible dose, inhibiteur de cire, gaz enrichi en CO 2 , période d'induction.

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Active Heating For Flow Assurance Control in Deepwater Flowlines

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

An Overview of Flow Assurance Heat Management Systems in Subsea Flowlines

Investigation of the performance of low-dosage hydrate inhibitors combined with wax inhibitors for a mixed CH₄-CO₂ gas hydrate formation

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Active Heating For Flow Assurance Control in Deepwater Flowlines

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

Effect of Shear on the Performance of Paraffin Inhibitors: Coldfinger Investigation with Gulf of Mexico Crude Oils

An Overview of Flow Assurance Heat Management Systems in Subsea Flowlines

Investigation of the performance of low-dosage hydrate inhibitors combined with wax inhibitors for a mixed CH4-CO2 gas hydrate formation

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Investigation of the performance of low-dosage hydrate inhibitors combined with wax inhibitors for a mixed CH₄-CO₂ gas hydrate formation