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Rheological Behavior of W/O Emulsion of Water-Heavy Oil System and Friction Loss Reduction Methods for its Flow in a Pipe

Publication year Port and Airport Research Institute Report 052-04-03 2013.12
Author(s) Isamu FUJITA,Yoshitaka MATSUZAKI
Department
/Divison
New Technology Development Field Oil Spill Response Group
Executive Summary

Spilled oil takes sea water as small droplets inside it and forms W/O emulsion due to mixing effect of turbulence of ocean wave. The resultant W/O emulsion has very high viscosity and changes its rheological behavior to cause various difficulties encountered in oil spill response fields such as clogging of pipe line due to too much friction. This paper mainly focuses on pipeline flow of W/O emulsion made of C heavy oil and water to resolve the high-viscosity problem. Firstly, experimental measurements of friction loss of W/O emulsion in a pipe are given and a prediction formula considering the W/O emulsion’s rheological character is proposed. Secondary, water injection is experimentally studied for reducing the friction loss. A simple physical model is proposed to predict the friction loss based on a CAF model. The optimum water injection rate is discussed. Thirdly, emulsion breaking using chemical agents is studied. Fundamental experiments are conducted to know the key factor to promote emulsion breaking and also inline agitator is tested for enhancing emulsion breaking. Fourthly, chemical agent injection system without agitator is experimentally studied for reducing the friction loss and compared to the water injection system. Finally, some practical implementations of the water injection and chemical agent injection are shown.

PDF File /en/pdf/en/no052-04-03.pdf