Essay On Viscosity Of Crude Oil

DESCRIPTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention involves the usage of electromagnets for reducing the viscosity of paraffinic crude oil. It also focuses on the behaviour of the various rheological parameters of crude oil such as Relaxation Modulus, Shear Stress, Strain and Deflection Angle after removal from short termed magnetization.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Viscosity of the fluid is defined as the a measure of resistance to the gradual deformation by shear stress. Viscosity arises from the friction between the neighboring particles in fluid moving with different velocities. It is a governing factor for transporting the crude through the pipeline over large distances and it differs from 5 cP - 100,000 cP, depending upon the composition

Hence, paraffins tend to solidify when they come from reservoir (rock) to the surface conditions. This phenomena results in the deposition of paraffins inside the tubing which results in choking and causes hindarance in the fluidity of crude through the pipelines. Apart from crude composition and temperature, pressure and particle agglomeration also affects the viscosity factor of paraffinic crude.

Some of the conventionally methods have been mentioned which are used to reduce the apparent viscosity of crude oil.

1. Thermal methods include either heating of pipelines or injecting some hot fluids (water / polymer) with crude.

2. Chemicals are also used to reduce the viscosity of waxy crude by altering the thermodynamic properties and pour point or by modifying the larger paraffinic crystals into the smaller ones.

3. Viscosity of waxy crude is also lowered by applying the sudden jerks below their pour point.

SUMMARY OF THE

The Viscometer was replaced with the Rheometer so that other rheological properties of crude can also be studied after magnetic treating.

2. Florescence Microscope (see figure 6) was used to study the effect of magnetic field on the crude at the microscopic level (see Figure 7 & 8).

The procedure of the experiment was described below:

1. The crude sample was heated at the 46° C in the hot air oven (see Figure 9) and the temperature of water bath was kept at 50° C in order to maintain the constant temperature during magnetic treating.

2. The crude was treated for 1 minute at different magnetic fields (6500, 7500 and 8500 Gauss) for 3 times (see figure 10) to ensure the repeatability of the field.

3. Finally, the sample was placed in Rheometer which was maintained under constant temperature (46° C) and shear rate (34 s-1)for 150 minutes (2 hours 30 minutes).

The Aton Parr Rheometer was selected for conducting the experiment. The Sensor Probe (SN33439) was 38.719 mm in diameter and 60.012 mm in length. The radius of the cup used for storing the crude oil sample was 21.000 mm with the measuring gap of 1.641 mm. The cone of the probe was making an angle of 120°.The volume of the crude sample filled in the Rheometer cup was 58 ml. The probe was recommended for viscous fluids (μ > 50