Study of the Factors Responsible for the Rheology Change of a Brazilian Crude Oil under Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Recently, some works showed that magnetic fields may reduce the paraffin crystallization and the viscosity of some types of oil. This Article shows the main results obtained in an attempt to determine some factors responsible for the oil interaction with magnetic fields, which caused the rheological properties change in crude oil samples. Under the influence of a magnetic field (1.3 T in 1 min exposure), one of the six brazilian crude oil samples studied (sample 1) showed 39% reduction on its viscosity and a reduction on the viscoelastic properties (loss modulus and storage modulus). However, the other five samples did not show any considerable modification of their rheological properties. We analyzed all six samples using spectroscopy to detect what kind of component was present in sample 1 that could interact with the magnetic field and cause the aforementioned rheological properties change and that was not present in the other samples. The major differences observed in sample 1 were the presence of the Mn 2+ paramagnetic ion (EPR spectroscopy); Sr and Br (XRF spectroscopy); highest aromatic/aliphatic molecules ratio (NMR spectroscopy); and the highest water content (10% v/v, NMR spectroscopy). Thus, the results show that the paraffin could not be the unique factor responsible for the change on the rheological properties of the crude oil samples caused by magnetic fields, as some authors suggested previously.

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