Experimental investigation of wax inhibition tendency of Jatropha oil in Niger Delta waxy crude-oil

Abstract

Wax formation from paraffinic crude oil and deposition in reservoir pores; production and transportation lines are a foremost severe challenge to flow assurance. Chemical wax control has received huge acceptance and is mostly used in the petroleum industry. This work experimentally examined the Paraffin Inhibition tendencies of Jatropha oil (JTO), Jatropha oil-based Polyaminoamine (JPA), JTO dissolved in xylene (JTOX), and JPA dissolved in xylene (JPAX) in Niger Delta waxy crude-oils. Four performance indicators; Pour Point (PP), Weight of Wax Deposited (WWD), Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT), and Wax Crystal Morphology (WCM) were used to test the wax inhibition tendency of three crude oils. All experiments were performed on the blank and additives-treated crude-oils. The results obtained confirm that JTOX and JPAX act as PP depressants. Also, WWD decreases with increasing cold finger temperature correlating to the higher Wax Inhibition Efficiency (PIE) of the chemical additive. Below the WAT, the viscosity increased at a higher rate and the least wax amount was deposited, hence, the highest PIE (Crude-oil A:71%; Crude-oil B:72%; Crude-oil C:70%) was observed and close to the industrial control paraffin inhibitor (Crude-oil A:67%; Crude-oil B:65%; Crude-oil C:75%). JPAX has a significantly improved performance as a PP depressant than JTO alone.