Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
FORMATION AND PROPERTIES OF EMULSIONS IN HEAVY OIL PRODUCTION
Submission Author:
Talita Botti , RJ
Co-Authors:
Maria Moura, Marcio CARVALHO, Talita Botti
Presenter: Talita Botti
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-1372
Abstract
Emulsion formation is a challenge when transporting heavy crude oil. Due to high viscosity, electric submersible pumps (ESPs) at the wellhead have been used to improve production. ESPs provide high shear rates to the flow consequently contributing to increase the formation of emulsions. The main challenge is that these emulsions have higher effective viscosity, increasing the pressure drop and hindering the flow. This work investigated the formation of emulsions of a North Sea heavy crude oil and of a model oil (with added surfactant), with similar rheological properties, in a Stirred Tank under high shear rates. Several aspects of these emulsions were studied: the continuous phase of the emulsion for different oil/water concentrations, the effective water concentration of the emulsions formed, the droplet size distribution, and the coalescence rate of the emulsions. It was observed that the emulsions formed by both oil phases studied are water-in-oil emulsions. Also part of the water is not emulsified for water concentrations above 65%. This effect decreases the viscosity of mixture significantly and can improve the transport. Different from the model oil emulsions, the crude oil emulsions presented instability after days at rest. This study provides fundamental elements to better understand crude oil emulsion formation in rotating and high shear systems, such as ESPs.
Keywords
W/O emulsions, heavy crude oil, high shear systems
