VISCOSITY REDUCER IN IMPROVING FLOW PERFORMANCE

• Main Author: ZAIDI, MUHAMMAD SAIFULLAH
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2011
• Subjects: T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10328/1/2011%20-%20Viscosity%20Reducer%20in%20Improving%20Flow%20Performance.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10328/

Heavy crude oil specifically contains paraffm of varying chain length and complex molecular structure with aromatic properties. This structure of molecule had made them higher in molecular weight which affected the viscosity and the rheology properties of the crude oil to be undesirable. In extracting and transporting the heavy crude oil in the most efficient way in term of avoiding energy losses and costs saving is to reduce the viscosity effects. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to design a special mixture of chemicals that will be named as Viscosity Reducer (VR) that able to reduce the viscosity of crude oil more than 50%. This research outcome solely based on series of testing and experiments conducted. The idea of reducing the viscosity is to reduce the molecular weight of the crude oil in improving its rheology properties. Therefore, a cutter or also known as cold cracker were applied into the crude oil to aher the properties of crude oil by cutting the paraffm chain length into small chunks which reduces the molecular weight of the composition of crude oil. This will reduce the viscosity of the crude oil and improve the mobility whether in reservoir or in transporting media. The cutter and the cold cracker will needed to be blend accordingly to treat a specific heavy crude oil because not all the heavy crude oil in this world share the same properties. Therefore ensuring the right chemical with the right concentration and percentage of composition are crucial to avoid permanent aheration of crude oil and also damage to the reservoir and fucilities. This research has already produce a prototype but still under research to enhance its performance. It is known as M6. M6 had successfully reduced the viscosity of the heavy crude oil sample up to almost 70%. M6 is as benchmark to this research. M6 also needs several alteration and modification to enhance its performance to he able to be commercialized.