oalogo2  

AUTHOR(S):

Sharul Sham Dol, Lim Jit Sen

 

TITLE

The Effect of Flow-Induced Oil-Water Emulsions on Pressure Drop

pdf PDF

ABSTRACT

In the oil production industry, crude oil is usually produced together with water from the reservoirs, and the immiscible mixtures of oil and water result in emulsions flow in the transporting pipelines. In this research work, a lab-scale flow loop was constructed to investigate the formation of emulsions solely through flow shear, and the effect of emulsions on pressure drop. The flow pressure drop profile shows that as more stable emulsions droplets are formed at higher flow rate, the pressure drop continues to increase until a maximum peak. The maximum peak is also the phase inversion point, where further water addition beyond this point triggers phase inversion of the emulsions system. Higher flow rate also brings the emulsions system to an earlier phase inversion. After the phase inversion, the pressure drop starts to decrease, until it reaches the pressure drop of pure water, due to the presence of unstable emulsions, irregular size distribution of emulsion droplets, non-aggregated emulsions with less dense packing, and water as the continuous phase. The flow pressure drop profile is an important optimization tool in the industry to determine the values of flow rate and water content, in mitigating the adverse pressure drop effect of emulsions.

KEYWORDS

pressure drop, emulsification, water-in-oil emulsions, oil-in-water emulsions, phase inversion point

REFERENCES

[1] Aske, N., Kallevik, H., and Sjöblom, J. (2002). Water-in-crude oil emulsion stability studied by critical electric field measurements. Correlation to physico-chemical parameters and near-infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 36, 1 – 17.

[2] Fingas, M., Fieldhouse, B., Bobra, M., and Tennyson, E. (1993). The physics and chemistry of emulsions. Proceedings of the Workshop on Emulsions.Washington, D.C.: Marine Spill Response Corporation.

[3] Alwadani, M. S. (2009). Characterization and rheology of water-in-oil emulsion from deepwater fields. (MSc. Thesis). Rice University.

[4] Wong, S. F., Lim, J. S. and Dol, S. S. (2015). Crude oil emulsion: a review on formation, classification and stability of water-in-oil emulsions. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 135, 498-504.

[5] Pal, R. (1993). Pipeline flow of unstable and surfactant-stabilized emulsions. AIChE J., 39, 1754-1764

[6] Nädler, M. and Mewes, D. (1997). Flow induced emulsification in the flow of two immiscible liquids in horizontal pipes. Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 23, 55-68.

[7] Keleşoğlu, S., Pettersen, B.H. and Sjöblom, J. (2012). Flow properties of water-in-North Sea heavy crude oil emulsions. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 100, 14- 23.

[8] Plasencia, J., Pettersen, B., and Nydal, O.J. (2013). Pipe flow of water-in-crude oil emulsions: Effective viscosity, inversion point, and droplet size distribution. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 101, 35-43.

[9] PETRONAS. (2015). Annual Crude Pipeline Network Capacity Report (Internal Report).

[10] Rose, S. C. and Marsden Jr, S. S. (1970). The flow of North Slope crude oil and its emulsions at low temperatures. In SPE 45th Annual Fall Meeting and Exhibition, 4-7 Oct (Paper SPE 2996). http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/2996-M

[11] Pilehvari, A., Saadevandi, B., Halvaci, M. and Clark, P. E. (1988). Oil/water emulsions for Sharul Sham Dol, Lim Jit Senpipeline transport of viscous crude oils. In SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 2-5 Oct (Paper SPE 18218). http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/18218-MS.

[12] Sanchez, L. E. and Zakin, J. L. (1994) Transport of viscous crudes as concentration oil-in-water emulsions. Ind. Engng Chem. Res. 33, 3256-3261.

[13] Schubert, H. and Armbruster, H. (1992). Principles of formation and stability of emulsions. International Chemical Engineering, 32(1), 14-28.

[14] Asomaning, S. and Watkinson, A.P. (1999). Deposit formation by asphaltene-rich heavy oil mixtures on heat transfer surfaces. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mitigation of Heat Exchanger Fouling and Its Economic and Environmental Implications, July, 1999 (pp. 283-287). Banff, Alberta, Canada: Banff Centre.

[15] Lee, R. F. (1999). Agents which promote and stabilize water-in-oil emulsions. Spill Science & Technology Bulletin, 5(2), 117-126.

[16] Ali, M.F. and Alqam, M.H. (2000). The role of asphaltenes, resins and other solids in the stabilization of water in oil emulsions and its effects on oil production in Saudi oil fields. Fuel 79, 1309 – 1316.

[17] Gafonova, O.V. (2000). Role of Asphaltenes and Resins in the Stabilization of Water-in-Hydrocarbon Emulsions. The University of Calgary: MSc. Thesis.

[18] Kilpatrick, P.E., and Spiecker, P.M. (2001). Asphaltene Emulsion. In J. Sjöblom (Ed.), Encyclopedic handbook of emulsion technology (pp. 707-730). New York: Marcel Dekker

[19] Bennett, C.A., Appleyard, S., Gough, M., Hohmann, R.P., Joshi, H.M., King, D.C. Stomierowski, S.E. (2006). Industry recommended procedures for experimental crude oil preheat fouling research. Heat Transfer Eng., 27, 28-35.

[20] Krieger, I.M. and Dougherty, T.J. (1959). A mechanism for non-Newtonian flow in suspensions of rigid spheres. Trans. Soc. Rheol. 3, 137–152.

[21] Wong, S.F., Law, M.C., Samyudia, Y., and Dol, S.S. (2015). Rheology study of water-in-crude oil emulsions. Chemical Engineering Transactions 45, 1411-1416.

[22] Otsubo, Y. and Prud'homme, R.K. (1994). Effect of drop size distribution on the flow behaviour of oil-in-water emulsions. Rheol. Acta, 33, 303–306.

[23] Zaki, N. (1997). Surfactant stabilized crude oil-in-water emulsions for pipeline transportation of viscous crude oils. Colloids Surf., A Physicochem. Eng. Asp., 125 (1), 19–25.

[24] Kokal, S. (2005). Crude-oil emulsions: A state-of-the-art review. SPE Production and Facilities, SPE 77497-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/77497-PA.

[25] Ashrafizadeh, S.N. and Kamran, M. (2010). Emulsification of heavy crude oil in water for pipeline transportation. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 71, 205 – 211.

[26] Becher, P. (1955). Principles of emulsion technology. New York: Reinhold

Cite this paper

Sharul Sham Dol, Lim Jit Sen. (2017) The Effect of Flow-Induced Oil-Water Emulsions on Pressure Drop. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 2, 73-78

 

cc.png
Copyright © 2017 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0