| Publication Type |
thesis |
| School or College |
College of Engineering |
| Department |
Chemical Engineering |
| Author |
Montalvo, Preston |
| Title |
Modeling of wax deposition in a crude oil carrying pipeline |
| Date |
2012-05 |
| Description |
The oil modeled in this thesis has a large amount of paraffin and must be transported from where it is extracted to a refinery over a distance that includes changes in elevation and temperature. This study investigated the deposition that would occur due to the paraffin in the oil. In this study the paraffin containing oil was mixed with a diluent in order to lower the wax appearance temperature (WAT) of the oil for one case. The second case involved mixing the paraffin containing oil with a light crude oil that did not contain a large amount of paraffins. The cases were modeled using the DepoWax module found in the commercially available software PVTsim, by Calsep International Consultants. Both of the cases were modeled in a pipeline, when the weather would be the coldest due to the ambient temperature being much lower than the WAT. The large temperature gradient in the pipeline to the outside air causes the temperature of the oil to drop below the WAT and pipeline pressure to be quite high. High Temperature Gas Chromatography (HTGC), viscosity measurements and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to characterize the oil. The HTGC gave the carbon number distribution of the paraffin containing oil as well as the diluent. Viscosity measurements gave rheological values for the oil at different temperatures as well as different dilutions with the diluent. The FTIR was used to determine the wax appearance temperature (WAT). The measured values from the previous tests all were used as inputs to DepoWax to characterize the oil and the mixtures to be modeled in the pipeline. |
| Type |
Text |
| Publisher |
University of Utah |
| Subject |
Deposition; Wax; Paraffin; Pipelines |
| Subject LCSH |
Petroleum pipelines; Paraffin deposition -- Mathematical models |
| Dissertation Institution |
University of Utah |
| Dissertation Name |
Master of Science |
| Language |
eng |
| Rights Management |
Copyright © Preston Montalvo 2012 |
| Format Medium |
application/pdf |
| Format Extent |
3,084,810 bytes |
| Identifier |
us-etd3/id/657 |
| Source |
Original in Marriott Library Special Collections, TN7.5 2012 .M66 |
| ARK |
ark:/87278/s6sf39zj |
| Setname |
ir_etd |
| ID |
194821 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6sf39zj |
