Abstract
Transportation of heavy crude oil through pipelines poses a great challenge in oil and gas industry. Crude oil chokes the pipelines when the temperature drops below the pour-point temperature. In the present study, a bio-based additive, i.e., Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) has been tested as a flow improver for heavy crude. CNSL was obtained from waste cashew nut shell by means of mechanical extraction, and it was completely characterized. Similarly, the crude oil used in the study was characterized for its physio-chemical properties. Also, the crude oil was subjected to Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and Asphaltene analysis and Fourier Transform Infra-Red analysis. The raw and additive-treated crude oil with different CNSL dosages were subjected to pour-point and rheology measurements and optical micro-imaging analysis which indicated a remarkable improvement in flow whereby an optimum dose of 2000 ppm was observed. Furthermore, the effects of different parameters like shear rate, concentration of the flow improver and the effect of temperature on the crude oil flowability were studied. The process variables were optimized by means of Taguchi method, and the percentage contribution of each parameter was identified with the help of ANOVA table. The results indicate that a remarkable improvement in flow was observed at an optimum dose of 2000 ppm. The contribution of the concentration was found to be around 53%, whereas the contributions of the shear rate and the temperature were only 18.08 and 28.91%, respectively. Therefore, it has been observed that CNSL flow improvers extracted from cheap reasonable resources are more effective as they are cost-effective and eco-friendly when compared to conventional additives.
Highlights
Over the years, global energy demand has witnessed a remarkable increase due to rapid economic and population growth
Cashew nut shell is a commodity of low-value that was procured from cashew nut processing industries
Cashew nut is a product of cashew tree, an evergreen tree that is scientifically known as Anacardium occidentale
Summary
Global energy demand has witnessed a remarkable increase due to rapid economic and population growth. Conventional methods available to improve the flowability at low temperatures are heating, dilution, emulsification, etc., whereas pigging is used for wax removal (Sivakumar et al 2018). These methods are generally time consuming, energy intensive and expensive. An effort has been made to investigate the impact of CNSL used as a bio-based flow improver on a typical waxy crude oil It explores the effect of shear on the rheology and its relationship with different dosages and temperatures. Discussions have been carried out on the influence of shear on the rheology of waxy crude oil
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