Thermal Shrinkage and Gas Voids Formation of Waxy Crude Oil

This report discussed on thermal shrinkage and gas voids formation of waxy crude oil. The objectives will be mainly on the effect of final temperature to the gas voids volume, pressure and composition and the result of aging process to the formation of gas voids. This report begins with the background study of the formation of gas voids inside pipeline. The limitations of current practice commonly lead to the adoption of wide margins of safety. This result in the needs to use high pressure in order to clear up the gelled crude oil formed within the pipelines. Literature reviews on the project composed of the behaviors of the formation of gas voids which is being done at the initial phase of the project. The methodologies and results from some journals are collected and compared. Next is the experimental work. During this phase, the simulation of actual problem faced is being conducted through experimental procedures and equipment in laboratory. A sample is tested with different parameters which are final temperature of 20⁰C, 15⁰C and 10⁰C. For the experiment regarding the effect of aging period, the sample is tested with aging period of 0 and 30 minutes at the temperature of 20⁰C. From here, analysis is done with respect to three respective parameters which are gas voids volume, pressure and composition. The findings are the gas voids pressure is lesser than the ambient pressure and it contains air properties. The second one is the volume of the gas voids increase as the final temperature of the crude decreases. Lastly, with regards to limited parameters it is observed that is no effect of aging process to the volume and pressure of gas voids.