Modeling of wax deposition for water-in-oil dispersed flow

作者：Zhou, Yuanxin; Gong, Jing^*; Wang, Pengyu

来源：Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2016, 11(1): 108-117.

DOI：10.1002/apj.1948

• waxy crude oil
• oil-water two-phase flow
• wax deposition
• flow loop
• model

Wax deposition for waxy crude oil is a long standing issue in oil production and transportation systems. With oil produced with water, the oil-water two-phase wax deposition becomes a research hotspot. Experiments of water-in-oil emulsion wax deposition were conducted in the indoor flow loop. The deposit thickness of emulsion wax deposition shows a trend of increasing after decreasing with water cuts. As the oil or coolant temperature decreases, the gelation phenomena becomes more obvious, and the turning point of the deposit thickness curve versus water cut shifts toward the lower water cut. The influence of gelling adhesion in emulsion wax deposition was discovered. A new model was developed for predicting water-in-oil dispersed flow wax deposition based on the mechanisms of molecular diffusion and gelling adhesion. The deposit thickness values predicted by the new wax deposit model for water-in-oil emulsion laminar flows with different water cuts agree well with experimental results.

• 出版日期2016-2
• 单位中国石油大学（北京）