Experimental study on wax deposition of highly paraffinic oil in intermittent gas-oil flow in pipelines

Oil-gas two phase wax deposition is a fairly common and open-ended question in flow assurance of multiphase transportation pipelines.This paper investigated the two main aspects of oil-gas two phase wax deposition layer:apparent thickness and crystal structure characteristics.A typical highly paraffinic oil in Bohai Sea,China,was used as the experimental material to investigate the wax deposition thickness in oil-gas two phase under the influence of different oil temperatures,superficial gas/liquid phase velocities and gas-oil ratios by using multiphase flow loop experimental device.Just as in the classical theory of wax molecular diffusion,it showed that wax deposition thickness of oil-gas two phase increased with increasing oil temperature.Analysis of the impact of different superficial phase velocities found that the actual liquid flow heat transfer and shear stripping was the gas phase dominant mechanisms determining wax deposit thickness.In addition,the crystal structure of the wax deposition layer was characterized with the help of small-angle X-ray scattering(SAXS)for different circumferential positions,flow rates and gas-oil ratios.The bottom deposition layer had a complex crystal structure and high hardness,which were subject to change over flow rate variations.Furthermore,the SAXS results provided evidence that the indirect effect of the actual liquid velocity modified by the gas phase was the main mechanism.Our study of the effect of gas phase on the wax deposition of oil-gas two phase will help shed light onto the mechanism by which this important process occurs.Our findings address a very urgent need in the field of wax deposition of highly paraffinic oil to understand the flow security of oilgas two phase that occurs easily in multiphase field pipelines.

Numerical simulation study on multiphase flow pattern of hydrate slurry

The research on the multiphase flow characteristics of hydrate slurry is the key to implementing the risk prevention and control technology of hydrate slurry in deep-water oil and gas mixed transportation system.This paper established a geometric model based on the high-pressure hydrate slurry experimental loop.The model was used to carry out simulation research on the flow characteristics of gas-liquid-solid three-phase flow.The specific research is as follows:Firstly,the effects of factors such as slurry flow velocity,hydrate particle density,hydrate particle size,and hydrate volume fraction on the stratified smooth flow were specifically studied.Orthogonal test obtained particle size has the most influence on the particle concentration distribution.The slurry flow velocity is gradually increased based on stratified smooth flow.Various flow patterns were observed and their characteristics were analyzed.Secondly,increasing the slurry velocity to 2 m/s could achieve the slurry flow pattern of partial hydrate in the pipeline transition from stratified smooth flow to wavy flow.When the flow rate increases to 3 m/s,a violent wave forms throughout the entire loop.Based on wave flow,as the velocity increased to 4 m/s,and the flow pattern changed to slug flow.When the particle concentration was below 10%,the increase of the concentration would aggravate the slug flow trend;if the particle concentration was above 10%,the increase of the concentration would weaken the slug flow trend,the increase of particle density and liquid viscosity would weaken the tendency of slug flow.The relationship between the pressure drop gradients of several different flow patterns is:slug flow>wave flow>stratified smooth flow.

Investigation on synergistic deposition of wax and hydrates in waxy water-in-oil(W/O) flow systems

Elucidating the synergistic effect of wax and hydrates, involving formation, aggregation and deposition,is imperative to the operation and transportation safety for offshore petroleum fields. To understand the characteristics and mechanism of synergistic deposition of wax and hydrates, flow and deposition experiments of systems with different wax contents(0-2.89 wt%), initial flow rates, pressures and temperatures were conducted in a high pressure visual flow loop. According to the flow rate and pressure drop data as well as the visual window observation, four different types of plugging scenarios of waxhydrate coexisting systems with different flow properties and wall deposition state were summarized,including rapid plugging, transition plugging, gradual plugging type I and gradual plugging type II.Compared with the wax-free system after hydrate formation, even with the addition of anti-agglomerant(AA) with the same concentration, wax-hydrate coexisting systems could not reach stable hydrate slurry flow state, indicating that the existence of wax deteriorated the performance of AA. Aside from the influence of wax crystals on hydrate agglomeration, it was found that wax deposition layer would alter the adhesion and bedding of hydrates, resulting in the variation of flow properties and wall deposition state.For low wax content systems(0.75 wt%) where rapid plugging occurred, the synergistic effect between wax and hydrates promoted the formation of wax-hydrate coupling aggregates, resulting in severe local deposition when the coupling aggregates attained critical deposition size and consequently decreasing flow rate, forming a vicious circle of decreasing transportability. Since bedding of coupling aggregates was hindered by the uniformly coated wax deposition layer on pipe wall, gradual plugging rather than rapid plugging occurred in medium wax content systems(1-1.25 wt%), predominately caused by the gradual increment in viscosity of waxy hydrate slurry. For relatively high wax content systems(2.89 wt%), hydrate formation and plugging did not occur, due to the insulation effect of wax deposition layer. A physical model for the synergistic deposition of wax and hydrates was also presented, which was meaningful to the development of a mathematical model for the prediction of blockage formation and risk analysis.