Enhancing Heavy Crude Oil Flow in Pipelines through Heating-Induced Viscosity Reduction in the Petroleum Industry

Abstract

The process of transporting crude oil across pipelines is one of the most critical aspects of the midstream petroleum industry. In the present experimental work, the effect of temperature, pressure drop, and pipe diameter on the flow rate of heavy crude oil have been assessed. Moreover, the total discharge and energy losses have been evaluated in order to demonstrate the improvements potentially achievable by using solar heating method replacing pipe, and adjusting the value of the initial pressure difference. Crude oil of API = 20 has been used for the experiments, with the studied pipelines sections connecting the separator unit to the storage tank operating at a temperature of 25°C–100°C, pressure drop of 3, 4, 5, and 6 kg/cm², and with pipe diameter of 4, 6, and 8 in. The results show that on increasing the temperature and/or the pressure drop, the flow rate through the pipeline becomes higher, thus raising the total pumping energy (as the pipe diameter increase), while energy losses increase from the last separator to the storage tank in the field. A pipe diameter increase can also produce a growth of the total pumping energy (i.e., energy losses increase). The results of the present analysis suggest that employing an optimal temperature (50°C) is needed to ensure good performance.