Effect of polyethylene pipe on wax deposition under different temperature and flow rate conditions

Abstract

Wax deposition is an important but troublesome boulder in petroleum industry that has always plagued pipeline engineering operators. In this study, wax deposition in the polyethylene pipes has different behaviors comparing wax deposition in stainless steel pipes such as smaller weight of wax deposits and lower wax content. After wax deposition experiments, some important parameters, including diffusivity and temperature gradient, were measured and calculated to explore the differences between two material pipes. Moreover, those factors can make a significant impact on radial mass flux. A series of results in polyethylene pipes suggests that higher diffusivity enhances diffusion flux of wax in the radial direction. But it was found that radial concentration gradient accounted for a larger proportion. These factors are the relationship of competition and cooperation and the combination of them results in different performances of wax deposition between polyethylene and stainless steel pipes.