Molecular Recognition of Wax Inhibitor Through Pour Point Depressant Type Inhibitor

Abstract

Abstract The deposition or crystallization of wax paraffin from crude oils is one of the crucial issues faced in the petroleum industry particularly when the temperature of the crude oil is below the wax appearance temperature (WAT). Pour Point Depressants (PPDs) chemical is proven to be an efficient way to solve this problem. This study investigated poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate(EVA)) and Poly(maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene)(MA) polymer inhibitors on the van der Waals intermolecular interaction between the major wax component molecule n-octacosane C28H58, via molecular dynamics simulation (MD) technique on Material Studio 5.5 software Package. COMPASS force field was applied to analyse the desired structural property, Radial Distribution Function (RDF). The results showed that the radial distribution function and g (r) value is able to give the insight on which particular type of fuctional atoms were benefit to inhibit the self-agglomerate of the wax crystal formation. The presence of carbonyl oxygen in EVA plays a significant role to inhibit the wax formation through the van der Waals interaction between active hydrogen atoms in n-octacosane molecule. Therefore the chances of wax inhibition in octacosane is higher by introduced EVA as inhibitor compared to MA. Introduction Wax deposition from crude oil from the subsea can occur along the pipeline transpotation which is connected from offshore well to the onshore [1]–[4]. The deposition or crystallization phenomenon occurs when the operating temperature of the pipeline is below the Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT) where the long linear n-paraffin chains of waxy crude come into contact with the circumference of the pipeline. The chains crystalize and adhere to each other inside the pipeline [5]. The deposition of wax can reduce the oil production operation through the blockage due to pipeline restrictions, failure of equipment, additional horsepower requirement [1].