Drag Reducing Agent for Water System Using Natural Polymer (Hibiscus leaves)

The flow of fluid in the pipeline results in frictional energy losses which cause the pressure of the fluid to decrease along the pipeline in the direction of the flow. These will reduce the flow rate of the fluid which is travelling through the pipeline. Therefore, the usage of the drag reducing agents, DRA is important to reduce the frictional resistant in turbulent flow. The elastic property which is also exhibit in hibiscus leaves as well as the commercial DRA, will absorb the energy in the streak which will reduce the turbulence. Thus, the project which the author does for the Final Year Project (FYP) is the drag reducing agent for water injection using natural polymer (hibiscus leaves). This project is to study the effectiveness of hibiscus leaves in reducing the pressure drop and to prove that hibiscus leaves is a potential drag reducing agent to be used in the industry for transporting hydrocarbons in pipeline. It is also a new discovery for cheap alternative to the current commercial DRA in the market as has abundant of resource all over Malaysia. This drag reducing agent is the answer for the problems that arise from the oil and gas industries in the transportation of hydrocarbons.
This is an experiment-base project where the author needed to conduct experiment to acquire the valuable data which is needed to prove the effectiveness of the hibiscus leaves as DRA. The experiment that the author performs is to investigate the effectiveness of the hibiscus concentration as DRA. The experiment is conducted by using an open flow test; where water is being pump from the storage tank to the pipeline, and the natural polymer is injected at the injection point into the flow system where it will mix with the flowing water. The flowing water is then travels through the 12.5m galvanized pipe and passes two pressure gauges which is set at different point of the pipe and finally to the outlet point. The pressure at the two points is recorded during the experiment and the drag reduction, flow throughput and flow rate is calculated.
From the result of the experiment, it is observed that as the concentration of the hibiscus leaves increases the drag reduction decreases, this shows that the hibiscus leaves is more effective at higher concentration compared to lower concentration. The increase in the drag reduction efficiency prove that hibiscus leave have the potential to be drag reducing agent.