Temperature Effect on Shear Thinning Behavior of Low-Viscous Oilfield Emulsion

Abstract

Crude oil emulsion is causing a lot of problems, especially during crude oil production. There are many ways to mitigate the emulsion problems but this leads to an increment in operating expenses of oil production. In order to comply with the standard sales oil quality, crude oil emulsion must be treated properly. Hence, better understanding of emulsion is essential since emulsion can be available in almost all phases of oil production and processing. This chapter describes how temperature parameters would affect the rheological property of a low-viscous emulsion and how it would become a significant point associated with stability of crude oil emulsion in oilfield production. Experimental results indicated that the water-in-crude oil emulsion formed from low-viscous crude oil exhibits a non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior, which was best presented by the Herschel-Bulkley rheological model. Temperature ranges from 20 to 90°C were examined to study the effect of temperature toward shear stress and viscosity of oilfield emulsion. Measurement of shear stress at shear rates higher than 600 s −1 is a new direction in rheology study that not much is known about its effect on shear stress.