High pressure micromechanical force method to assess the non-plugging potential of crude oils and the detection of asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerates
A hydrate prevention strategy taking advantage of crude oil that exhibit hydrate non-plugging tendency is a viable option in oilfield production conditions, or during transient operations. For that reason, it is important to accurately evaluate crude oils for their potential as non-plugging oils in...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39596/1/High%20pressure%20micromechanical%20force%20method%20to%20assess%20the%20non-plugging%20potential%20of%20crude%20oils%20and%20the%20detection.pdf http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39596/2/High%20pressure%20micromechanical%20force%20method%20to%20assess%20the%20non-plugging%20potential%20of%20crude%20oils%20and%20the%20detection%20of%20asphaltene-hydrate%20mixed%20agglomerates.pdf http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39596/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.126871 |
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| Summary: | A hydrate prevention strategy taking advantage of crude oil that exhibit hydrate non-plugging tendency is a viable option in oilfield production conditions, or during transient operations. For that reason, it is important to accurately evaluate crude oils for their potential as non-plugging oils in a small-scale apparatus, such as a High- Pressure Micromechanical Force (HP-MMF) system, before continuing to large-scale testing. HP-MMF is an interfacial method that has been applied to measure gas hydrate interparticle cohesive force to gain insight into the hydrate agglomeration tendencies of crude oils. Herein, methane/ethane hydrate cohesive force measurements in the presence of small concentrations of crude oil were performed in the HP-MMF. Direct observations from the HP-MMF revealed, for the first time, the appearance of asphaltene precipitates that interact with the gas hydrate particles to produce an asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerate. A new HP-MMF method has been developed that enables representative sampling and evaluation of the effect of crude oil samples on the cohesive force between two gas hydrate particles in the HP-MMF. The method has been tested with two crude oils, where lower cohesive force results are demonstrated by the presence of small concentrations (<5 vol% in model oil) of Crude A and C compared to the baseline system of pure model oil. Hence, indicating the presence of natural anti- agglomerants (AAs) that contribute to the non-plugging behavior of these crude oils. These studies show that the HP-MMF is a convenient tool to assess the non-plugging potential of crude oils at realistic (high pressure, low temperature) conditions, requiring only small oil sample volumes. The HP-MMF method developed in this work is demonstrated to be a unique tool that can be utilized for the detection of asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerates. These new findings provide important insights for asphaltene precipitation in the presence of gas hydrates, that can create catastrophic agglomeration in the flowlines. |
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