Effect of ultrasonic irradiation treatment on rheological behaviour of extra heavy crude oil: A solution method for transportation improvement

Effect of ultrasonic irradiation treatment on rheological behaviour of extra heavy crude oil: A solution method for transportation improvement

Asphaltenes

Crude oil

Viscosity

Mixtures

Heavy oil production

Petroleum transportation

Shear flow

Irradiation

Shear deformation

The highly viscous property of heavy oil often causes problems in its transportation in pipelines. Mixing heavy oil with light oil as well as ultrasound treatment are viable solutions to this problem. In this study, extra heavy crude oil samples were first diluted with 0, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.15 mL/mL (0, 5, 10, and 15 vol%) of a light crude oil

then the mixture was irradiated by ultrasonic waves for 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 min

finally the viscous shear functions of all mixtures was measured at different values of shear rate at different temperature levels. The results revealed that the minimum viscosity of the diluted extra heavy crude oil samples was obtained at 10 min of ultrasonic irradiation. Moreover, the viscosity reduction rate in relation to temperature decreases as temperature increases. In other words, the maximum viscosity reduction rate occurred at 0.05 mL/mL (5 vol%) of light crude oil. Using the experimental data, the parameters of common rheological models were obtained and a new modified Power Law model was presented to calculate the effect of shear rate and temperature simultaneously. 2016 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

83-91

1

95

Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering

2017

Rahimi, Mohammad Amin

Ramazani S.A, Ahmad

Alijani Alijanvand, Hossein

Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein

Ghanavati, Mahdi

journalArticle

84034

10.1002/cjce.22676