THERMAL SHRINKAGE AND GAS VOID FORMATION OF WAXY CRUDE OIL -FLOW LOOP DEVELOPMENT

The objective of this research is to design a flow loop to study the compressibility of waxy crude oil under thermal shrinkage and gas void formations. Fields are producing crude oil with high wax content (longer carbon chains) have trouble in transporting the waxy crude oil. This problem occurs when the wax starts to form from static cooling and clogs up the pipe. Two main important temperatures in the problem occurrence is the wax appearance temperature and the pour point temperature. At these temperatures, the wax will form and harden to clog up the pipeline. However, this gel are slight compressible because of the gas voids that are formed. The restart pressure of the pipe (to regain flow) is always over predicted as it does not include the compressibility characteristics. This project focuses on creating a flow loop to experimentally simulate the conditions where the crude oil goes through while being transported. The test section of the flow loop will then be scanned under a MRI Scanner to detect the gas voids formed. For this project, a test run has been done using the MRI Scanner, where a tube of gel is scanned and images can clearly see the gas voids formed. In addition, the flow loop has been finalized and under fabrication. The flow loop is designed to duplicate the conditions at sea bed (sea