DRAG REDUCING AGENT BY WATER INJECTION USING NATURAL POLYMER (Solanum Tuberosum)

This research presents an experimental study of drag reduction performance of natural polymer solution in pipelines. The aim is to prove the effectiveness of using potatoes solution or in scientific called Solanum Tuberosum as Drag Reducing Agent (DRA). DRA is a chemical agent used to optimize the pipeline capacity by reducing drag and lowering pressure drop across the pipeline. As the production continue, the main problem that will be aroused due to the limited pipeline capacity which caused by drag. Drag had caused power pumping losses, decreasing in production capacity and pipelines corrosion. Thus, DRA is rapidly becoming an essential alternative in Oil & Gas industry since it can be applied in short time and does not require a high initial investment. The objectives of this project are to investigate the effect of natural polymer used as DRA in water flowline, to determine the percentage of drag reduction after injecting the DRA and to determine water flow rate due to different concentration of DRA. This polymer has been tested in 1-inch diameter Galvanize Iron steel single pipeline. The pipeline is 12.25 meter long where water is pumped throughout 4 meter long of test section which 2 pressure gauges were located in order to measure the pressure drop. An injection point is created to inject the DRA solutions at the starting point of 6 meter entrance length before the test section. At the beginning of the experiment, 36 liter of water from storage tank is pumped through the test section without injecting the DRA. Readings from both pressure gauges and time taken for water to cater the drainage tank is recorded. Then, the experiment is repeated with the same procedure with injecting the DRA at the injection point. The difference pressure of both pressure drops is calculated in order to get drag reduction percentage (%Dr). In the experiment, 5 different concentrations of DRA are prepared. The result showed that Solanum Tuberosum give potential effect when acts as DRA significantly by recorded 3.03% of Drag Reduction Percentage in the lowest concentration, 600 ppm and 10.91% in the highest concentration which is 1000 ppm. Although it did not present the best performance as DRA, but there are advantages of using the natural polymer as DRA. There are very abundant quantity in Malaysia, thus, it has zero problem in getting them in a big amount to produce as DRA.