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Effect of wax/anti-agglomerant interactions on hydrate depositing systems
- Source :
- Fuel. 264:116573
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Hydrates and waxes are two of the biggest flow assurance challenges during subsea oil production. They are both depositing species which can cause stenosis of the pipeline, reducing the available area for flow and increasing the pressure load for production. In extreme scenarios, the pipe can become completely blocked by either of these species. However, little is known about the interaction between waxes and hydrates and less still is known about how treatments for hydrates may affect waxes or vice versa. Hydrate deposition in a waxy pipeline may follow significantly different mechanisms from a bare steel pipeline due to a shift from a typically hydrophilic steel surface to a hydrophobic wax-coated surface. This study utilized a micromechanical force measurement apparatus in order to explore some of the interactions between waxes, both surface-deposited and dissolved in the bulk phase, and hydrates which have been treated with anti-agglomerant chemicals. It was found that waxes can significantly alter both the cohesive and adhesive forces caused by hydrate particles, but that the effect when anti-agglomerants are present may vary based on the composition of the anti-agglomerant. This incompatibility is important for operators to understand better, because the ineffectiveness of an anti-agglomerant when waxes are present could result in hydrate agglomeration and potential plug formation.
- Subjects :
- Wax
Materials science
Economies of agglomeration
020209 energy
General Chemical Engineering
Steel pipeline
Organic Chemistry
Flow assurance
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
02 engineering and technology
Fuel Technology
020401 chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Oil production
visual_art
Phase (matter)
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Deposition (phase transition)
0204 chemical engineering
Hydrate
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00162361
- Volume :
- 264
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Fuel
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........b2810fd3d5d3fd2c3a1e58b54e6c9ba6