Calculation of Fouling Potential in Crude

Oil for Dynamic Conditions

Aim:
Prediction of fouling data to be obtained experimentally at high temperature and shear conditions
using a modified autoclave to mimic typical pipeline conditions.

Objective:
Using this data the following can be achieved:

1. The rate of fouling at process conditions to determine cleaning cycles

2. Threshold conditions for initiation of fouling
3. The effectiveness of new chemical and physical mitigation methods
4. The changes in the fouling rate due to changes in the chemical composition and/or the
operating conditions.

Design of fouling unit:

High-Temperature Organic-Fluid Fouling Unit (Kuru & Panchal)
Description of the set-up:
1. The autoclave has a stainless-steel flow tube over a probe, providing an annular space to
pass. The flow tube is connected to the thermowell and is aligned vertically.
2. To drive the fluid upward through the annular space a helical impeller is placed at the upper
portion of the tube.
3. The probe: it has a heated section and has 3 interior thermocouples positioned near the wall
to monitor the rate of fouling. The probe is examined to determine the fouling.

Calibration of the set-up:

The reproducibility of the fluid dynamics and thermal conditions of the fouling unit designed
qualify it for further fouling experiments. The calibration tests are done as follows:

1. Flow calibration: Direct measurement of the flow rate is not possible. Hence, it is related as
follows. The flow rate is inversely proportional to the increase in the fluid temperature
through the tube. The RTDs placed at the 2 ends of the tube give the measure of the flow
rate inside the flow tube.

A linear relation between the rotation rate of the impeller and the flow rate is observed.

2. Heat transfer calibration: For verification of the heat transfer properties, two parameters are
calculated: wall resistance and the heat transfer coefficient.

Wall resistance is calculated using the Wilson plot (as shown below). The value obtained
from the graph is close to the theoretically calculated wall resistance value.

For the heat transfer coefficient, the correlation given by Knudsen and Katz for annular flow
is used after altering the constant value from 0.02 to 0.03 to take into account the entrance
effects.

Fouling experiments:
For the fouling tests, 5 liters of test fluid aerated for 4 hrs under 4 atmospheres of pressure
was used for fouling experiments. The following test conditions are considered:

1. 0.6 m/s, 100 kW/m2, 82C, 4 atm.

2. 1 m/s, 194 kW/m2, 82C, 4 atm.
 3. 0.7 m/s, 214 kW/m2, 82C, 4 atm.

Novel Organic Solids Deposition and Control Device (OSDC) for Live-Oils (Zougari et al)

Description of the set-up:

1. The OSDC device consists of concentric cylinders, where the central cylinder rotates and the
outer cylinder is stationary.
2. The process fluid occupies the annular space between the two cylinders giving rise to
Couette-Taylor system.
3. It also consists of a heat exchanger system, which includes cooling/heating baths, heater
system, heat exchanger.
4. The geometry of the OSDC cell is optimised to achieve the maximum Reynolds number
allowing turbulent flows at reasonable rotational speeds.
Scaling the OSDC cell data to obtain the pipe flow conditions:
The scale-up of wax and asphaltene deposition cell to obtain the pipe flow data requires the proper
definition of the following thermal and hydrodynamic properties along with the control of the three
basic thermodynamic variables (temperature, pressure and composition)

Characterising the cell for thermal characteristics:

The following tests are carried out to check the OSDC set-up for its thermal characteristics.

1. Establish the accuracy of OSDC to be maintained at constant uniform temperature.

2. Define the heat transfer coefficient of the cell.

OSDC wax deposition tests:

1. The wax deposition test was carried out at a fixed pressure, temperature differential
between the bulk fluid and deposition wall, fluid composition and constant spindle speed.
2. Minimum 3 test are required to simulate the different positions in the pipeline.
3. The residual oil on the spindle is cleaned via rinsing it with cold dichloromethane. Hot
toluene (approx. 70C) is used to dissolve the postrinse wax deposit under high rotational
speed of the spindle for at least 20 mins. The resulting solution is them collected and
subjected to roto-evaporation to dryness.
4. The resulting wax is weighed and can be subjected to high temperature gas chromatography
(HTGC) for analysing for n-paraffin composition and entrapped oil content.
5. In case of the presence of asphaltenes in the sample (like the South American live-oil),
deposition tests are carried out in the cell at the reservoir temperature and the
corresponding saturation temperature.
6. Just as in the case of wax deposition, DCM is used to dissolve and recover the deposition on
the walls of the cylinders and subjected to roto-evaporation under a fume-hood to dryness.
7. To determine the asphaltene content, it is subjected to IP-143 method. Thus, we obtain the
asphaltene deposit baseline value (lowest detectable deposit mass) of the OSDC.
8. The difference between the total deposits and the asphaltene deposits yields the mass of
maltenes.
9. Further tests are undertaken to evaluate the effect of wall shear stress on the amount of
asphaltene deposit.