Waste bio materials based viscosity reduction and rheological properties of crude oil

Abstract

The effectiveness of using waste bio materials as viscosity reducing agents was investigated on light and heavy crude oils of Oman. The selected materials are fiber of palm tree, date palm kernel and walnut shell. The utilization of waste bio materials is not only considered as a cost effective, but, environmentally friendly and has less effect on crude oil processing as compared to that of chemical additives. In this study, special piping structure was constructed to measure flowabilty time of crude oil. It was observed that use of bio materials reduced oil flowability time by range of 42-50% using particle size 75 µm and by 66% using particle size 150 µm. Moreover, the effect of different additives and various concentrations of bio materials on oil rheological properties, for instance viscosity and yield stress, were also studied. Results showed that the light crude oil exhibits a non-Newtonian viscoplastic behavior following (Bingham plastic model) whereas the heavy crude oil exhibits a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior (shear thinning model). The use of bio materials reduced the limiting viscosities of the light crude oils by 62% using particle size 75 µm and 75% using particle size 150 µm. However, limiting viscosity of heavy crude oil was reduced by 15%. In addition, it was observed that using bio materials lowered yield shear; light crude reduced by average 32% while heavy crude oil reduced by 10%.

Research Status and Outlook of Mechanism, Characterization, Performance Evaluation, and Type of Pour Point Depressants in Waxy Crude Oil: A Review

“…It was found that castor seed oil and jatropha seed oil were the most effective inhibitors, as they contain oxhydryl and π-bonds that can act as barriers to the formation of the waxy crystal network. The same conclusion was obtained for biowastes (palm tree fiber, date palm kernel, and walnut shell) . Azeem et al combined olive oil with pentadecane and VA to generate a composite polymer, which inhibited wax deposition through a cocrystallization mechanism, and lowered the pour point by 8 °C at 1000 ppm.…”

“…The same conclusion was obtained for biowastes (palm tree fiber, date palm kernel, and walnut shell). 141 Azeem et al 142 combined olive oil with pentadecane and VA to generate a composite polymer, which inhibited wax deposition through a cocrystallization mechanism, and lowered the pour point by 8 °C at 1000 ppm. Ragunathan et al 143 studied the inhibitory effect of palm oil compared with that of the commercial PPD ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and reported that there was a critical concentration at which PPD decreased the pour point of crude oil.…”

Investigating the Rheology and Stability of Heavy Crude Oil-in-Water Emulsions Using APG08 Emulsifiers

“…Some prior experimental results , have suggested that the rheological behavior of heavy crude oil-in-water emulsions within a range of shear rates can be expressed by the following power-law equation: where τ is the shear stress, μ is the apparent viscosity, γ is the shear rate, K is the consistency index, and n is the flow behavior index. − Meanwhile, the K value is the metric of fluid viscosity, with a higher viscosity meaning a larger K value. For a Newtonian fluid μ = K and n = 1.…”