Title:Study on the Effect of Polyoctadecyl Acrylate on Daqing Waxy Oil
Volume: 16
Issue: 2
Author(s): Yihai Yang, Zhengnan Sun, Guolin Jing*, Yang Liu, Jianqi Xu, Lina Zhang and Hongyu Tao
Affiliation:
- Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Petroleum and Petrochemical Multiphase Treatment and Pollution
Prevention, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University,
Daqing, 163318, China
Keywords:
Waxy oil, polyoctadecyl acrylate, pour point depressants, pour point, viscosity, wax crystals.
Abstract:
Introduction: Crude oil is a complex mixture consisting of different hydrocarbons
such as resins, asphaltenes, aromatics and paraffins. Wax deposition in oil pipelines is
considered to be one of the most serious flow assurance problems.
Method: In order to obtain a pour point depressant with a better effect on Daqing waxy
crude oil, a model oil containing Daqing paraffin was investigated. Polyoctadecyl acrylate
was prepared by taking polymerization of octadecyl acrylate monomer under the corresponding
reaction conditions. The pour point and viscosity were measured after adding the
pour point depressant into the waxy model oil.
Results: The experimental results showed that the best pour point reduction effect of polyoctadecyl
acrylate was achieved when the mass of octadecyl acrylate monomer was 40wt%
of the total mass (the sum of the mass of solute octadecyl acrylate and solvent toluene), the
reaction temperature was 80 °C, the reaction time was 6 h, and the amount of initiator was
0.15wt% under the condition that toluene was used as the solvent. The addition of polyoctadecyl
acrylate effectively inhibits the appearance of wax crystals and makes the distribution
of wax crystals more dispersed.
Conclusion: The optimal pour point depressant concentration was found to be 800 mg/kg.
The alkyl side chains of polyoctadecyl acrylate allow co-crystallization with the waxy
crystals and thus their dispersion, while its polar groups can weaken the interactions between
the wax crystals.