Experimental Study of Oil Deposition Through a Flow Loop

Abstract

In this article, the effect of temperature, pressure, and flow rate on deposition rate has been investigated by using chemical analysis method for calculating the deposit thickness and comparing to heat transfer and pressure drop methods. To do so, an experimental high pressure flow loop setup was designed and constructed to conduct various experiments. Caliper readings at the end of each test showed the chemical analysis method in comparison to the heat transfer and pressure drop methods is superior for deposit thickness calculation.

Prediction of Chemical Inhibitors Efficiency for Reducing Deposition Thickness Using Artificial Neural Network

“…[5,12] Pressure is not considered as an important factor for wax deposition, especially for dead or stock tank oils. [2,13] A thorough experimental research on the effect of operating condition in deposition thickness from single phase flow has been reported by Lashkarbolooki et al [2] and Seyfaee et al [3] The patent literature describes many products developed to remove or prevent paraffin deposits, but in spite of these contributions the problem of paraffin deposition was not solved. Good descriptions of chemical inhibitors are given in the literature.…”

“…[1,11] Several factors are responsible for the wax deposition in the pipelines, including crude oil composition, temperature, flow rate, thermal history, and pressure. [1][2][3][4] Moreover, the amount of deposited wax is affected by the concentration of paraffins, light ends, and nucleating or inhibiting materials in the crude oil. [5,12] Pressure is not considered as an important factor for wax deposition, especially for dead or stock tank oils.…”

“…[1] These problems cause losses of billions of dollars yearly to petroleum industry due to frequent shutdowns and operational problems during transportation, production, storage and consumption, increase the cost of chemicals for deposition inhibition, reduction of production, well shut-in, less utilization of capacity, chocking of the flow lines, equipment failure, extra horsepower requirement, and increased manpower attention. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] The temperature at which the first crystals of paraffin wax start to appear upon cooling of a crude oil is called the wax appearance temperature (WAT), is an important parameter. [1][2][3][4][5] As the crude oil flows through cold environment pipelines, the crude oil temperature in the region of the pipe wall decreases below the WAT; wax components precipitate out of the solution and crystallize, which leads to solid deposition on the pipe wall.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] The temperature at which the first crystals of paraffin wax start to appear upon cooling of a crude oil is called the wax appearance temperature (WAT), is an important parameter. [1][2][3][4][5] As the crude oil flows through cold environment pipelines, the crude oil temperature in the region of the pipe wall decreases below the WAT; wax components precipitate out of the solution and crystallize, which leads to solid deposition on the pipe wall. [2] Indeed, pipeline blockage removal can be very expensive.…”

Investigation of the Effect of Insulation on Wax Deposition in an Iranian Crude Oil Pipeline with OLGA Simulator

“…[1,[10][11][12][13] The previous experimental investigations have shown that crude oils with wax content of at least 2% could cause wax deposition problems. [14][15][16][17] Seyfaee et al [18] experimentally investigated the effect of temperature, pressure, and flow rate on the deposition. They were used chemical analysis method for calculating the deposit thickness.…”