Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
STUDY OF COMMERCIAL COATING OF PIPES TO IMPROVE THE FLOW OF WATER-OIL EMULSIONS
Submission Author:
Rafaela Silva , SP , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Rafaela Silva, Carlos Eduardo Perles, Vanessa Guersoni, Antonio Bannwart
Presenter: Rafaela Silva
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0170
Abstract
Along the production lines, crude oil and water are produced together, being subjected to high shear and turbulence. Thus, the flow conditions can provide the necessary energy to disperse one phase into another, producing emulsions along the flow lines. Among the main types of emulsion, the water-in-oil (W/O) type is the most common and the one that most impacts the production. The main characteristic of emulsions is the increased viscosity in comparison to the isolated fluids (water and oil), which results in lower flow rates in the production system. The internal coating of pipes and other surfaces exposed to the flow has been pointed out as a strategy to minimize this problem, as it can change the physicochemical properties of the surface, being able to reduce surface-fluid interaction. Thus, this work aims to analyze whether a coating on the inner wall of the pipes can reduce the drag of the fluid with the pipe wall and, consequently, the pressure drop in emulsion flows. For this purpose, two samples of the same steel surface were evaluated, one commercial coated and the other uncoated. The wettability of the surfaces by fluids was determined by measuring the contact angle (θ) using a tensiometer based on the Sessile Drop methodology. The fluids used in the study were deionized water, two mineral oils, brine (sodium chloride solutions), crude oil, production water, and w/o emulsions. The temperature varied between 25 and 45°C and the test time was fixed at 10 minutes. Based on the contact angle tests, mineral oils presented a higher affinity for the uncoated surface compared to the coated surface. Regarding the water/oil emulsion, the results indicated a lower affinity for the coated surface, suggesting a reduction of the fluid/ pipe wall drag and an improvement of the flow under dynamic conditions. The effect of coating pipes will be done in a flow loop with water-oil emulsions and the results will be evaluated in terms of pressure drop.
Keywords
coating, pressure drop, Wettability
