Abstract
AbstractWater-lubricated pipe flow technology is an economic alternative for the long-distance transportation of viscous oils, such as heavy oil and bitumen. In the industrial-scale application of ...
Highlights
Known reserves of nonconventional oils represent one of the largest global petroleum resources (Nunez et al 1998; Saniere et al 2004; CAPP 2015)
The computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based approach for calculation of hydrodynamic roughness was validated by applying it to analyze data obtained from three independent sets of experiments: clean flow cell tests, sandpaper tests, and tests where surface roughness was produced by a biofouling layer
For the flow tests conducted with the clean test cell, the measured pressure gradients with corresponding predictions are presented in Fig. 4 as a function of water velocity, which was calculated from the measured mass flow rate and nominal cross-sectional area of the flow cell
Summary
Known reserves of nonconventional oils represent one of the largest global petroleum resources (Nunez et al 1998; Saniere et al 2004; CAPP 2015). Pipelines are most commonly used for this transportation, provided the effective viscosity of the oil can be reduced through heating, dilution, partial upgrading, or emulsification (Nunez et al 1998; Saniere et al 2004; Jean et al 2005). These methods require substantial capital investments and operating costs, which contribute significantly to the higher production costs of heavy oil. The oil industry is keen to use more cost-effective technology for heavy oil transportation (Nunez et al 1998; Guevara et al 1998; Saniere et al 2004; Hart 2014)
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