Enhancing rheological properties and reduction of total acid number of a heavy crude oil using ethanol and trona

Enhancing rheological properties and reduction of total acid number of a heavy crude oil using ethanol and trona

Rheology

Crude oil

Blending

Corrosion

Hydrocarbons

Ethanol

Petroleum transportation

Sodium Carbonate

Viscosity of liquids

Kinematics

Sodium bicarbonate

One of Sudanese fields has a heavy crude oil which has a high Total Acid Number (TAN) and high viscosity, can cause a lot of problems in production operation, transport, and storage facilities. The effect of ethanol dilution on the rheological properties of crude (especially the kinematic viscosity) was studied and presented. Moreover, the consequence of blending Trona (NaHCO3.Na2CO3) with a specified amount of Ethanol in the crude can reduce (TAN) to acceptable limits for solving corrosion and flowability problems. The approach is based on the experiments and laboratory works on the crude's samples after blending with a certain amount of Trona and Ethanol. It depends on the results of apparatuses, that are used to measure the samples, for instance, Calibrated glass capillary viscometer and ASTM D664 titration volume Total Acid Number tester which are employed to get the values of kinematic viscosity and TAN, respectively. The tests are established with crude have kinematic viscosity (187 cst) at temperature 75C and TAN almost (8.51). While increasing the dosage of Trona at the ambient temperature (38C) with the certain mass percentage of Ethanol (5%), TAN is decreased from (8.51 to 4.00 mgKOH/g). Also, the kinematic viscosity is declined from (187 cst to 96.75 cst) after increasing the volume of Ethanol at 75C. These outcomes indicated that Ethanol could reduce Sudanese heavy crude's viscosity, and the Trona could decrease the TAN. This reduction occurred due to Ethanol dilution. The Ethanol molecules disturb the molecular structure of the crude, which forms polar bond within the hydrocarbon chain that leads to lower the friction between molecules of hydrocarbon in the crude. Also, Trona shrinks TAN because the Hydroxide ions (OH+) that founded in Trona neutralize the Hydrogen ions (H-) in Naphthenic acid in Sudanese heavy crude. This study can be summarized in the ability to solve the difficulty of transporting and processing the heavy crude oil in refineries

maintains the quality of the crude while utilizing it with friendly environmental materials and low cost. 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition 2021, APOG 2021, October 12, 2021 - October 14, 2021

2021

Almadhaji, Ahmed

Saeed, Mohammed

Ibrahim, Hitham

Ahmed, Anas

Maher, Ragaei

conferencePaper

10.2118/205621-MS