Advances in Chemical Engineering & Technology

The world demand for energy has led oil companies to expand their operations in cold environments such as the offshore deepwater and onshore for more reservoirs. During hydrocarbon production in the cold environment, these oil companies are challenged with the problem of wax deposition from the crude oil building up on the pipe wall. It leads to increases in operational and remedial costs while suppressing oil production. Wax inhibitors are one of the mitigation technologies that had been examined its influence on crude oil viscosity and wax appearance temperature (the temperature at which the first crystal of wax start to deposit from crude oil).

During this work, the performance of some of wax inhibitors such as acetone, copolymer + acrylated monomers coded W804, and copolymer + acrylated monomers coded W805 was evaluated to determine their effects on the crude oil rheology, using the programmable Rheometer rig at gradient temperatures 55 to 0°C and shear rate 120 1/s. The synergy of using mixtures of such chemical inhibitors has been examined by adding 250, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm of the mixtures of inhibitors to the crude oil. The first mixture includes acetone with copolymer + acrylated monomers (W804), and the second mixture includes acetone with copolymer + acrylated monomers (W805). These mixtures works well compared with its original components. The wax appearance temperature of the used crude oil in this study without inhibitors is 30°C.

The first mixture of inhibitors reduced the wax appearance temperature of oil to 25.2, 24, 18.4, 16.8, and 15.4°C, at concentration 250, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm respectively. While, the second mixture of inhibitors reduced wax appearance temperature of the crude oil to 24.3, 21.7, 16.7, 15.3 and 14.2°C, at concentration 250, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm respectively.

This blend of the inhibitory properties and significant reduction in wax appearance temperature and oil viscosity is providing a unique contribution in wax elimination methods.

Recent Publications

1.            Theyab M.A. and Yahya S.Y. (2018) Introduction to Wax Deposition. International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research 2(1): 126-131.

2.            Theyab M.A. (2018) Severe Slugging Control: Simulation of Real Case Study. Journal of Environmental Research 2(1):1-9.

3.            Theyab M.A. (2018) Wax deposition process: mechanisms, affecting factors and mitigation methods. Open Access Journal of Science 2(2):112–118.  DOI:10.15406/oajs.2018.02.00054.

4.            Theyab  M.A. (2018)  Experimental  Methodology  Followed  to  Evaluate Wax Deposition Process. Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology 9: 357. doi: 10.4172/2157-7463.1000357.

5.            Theyab M.A. (2018) Fluid Flow Assurance Issues: Literature Review. SciFed Journal of Petroleum 2(1):1-11.

6.            Theyab  M.A. (2018)  The Effect of Shear Stress on Wax Deposit Thickness with and without Spiral Flow. Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology.

7.            Theyab M.A., and Diaz P. (2017) An Experimental and Simulation Study of Wax Deposition in Hydrocarbon Pipeline. Global Journal of Engineering Science and Researches 4(7):27-40. DOI10.5281/zenodo.821334

8.            Theyab, M.A., Diaz, P. (2017) Experimental Study on the Effect of Polyacrylate Polymer (C16-C22) on Wax Deposition. International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications 8 (1): 16-21. doi: 10.18178/ijcea.2017.8.1.624

9.            Theyab, M.A., Diaz, P. (2016) Experimental Study of Wax Deposition in Pipeline – Effect of Inhibitor and Spiral Flow. International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy 5 (3): 174-181. doi: 10.12720/sgce.5.3.174-181.

10.       Theyab MA, Diaz P (2016) Experimental Study on the Effect of Inhibitors on Wax Deposition. Journal of Petroleum and Environmental Biotechnology 7 (6): 310. doi: 10.4172/2157-7463.1000310.

11.       Theyab, M.A., Diaz, P. (2016) Experimental Study on the Effect of Spiral Flow on Wax Deposition Thickness, One petro, presented at SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference and Exhibition, Moscow, Russia, 24-26 October. SPE 181954-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/181954-MS (published in English and Russian languages).

12.       Theyab, M.A., Diaz, P. (2016) Experimental Study on the Effect of Spiral Flow on Wax Deposition Volume, One petro, presented at Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 7-10 November. SPE-182936-MS. doi:10.2118/182936-MS.