Predicting the Viscosity of Petroleum Emulsions Using Gene Expression Programming (GEP) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

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This paper summarizes an investigation of certain operating parameters on the viscosity of petroleum emulsions. The production of crude oil is accompanied by emulsified water production, which comes along with various challenges like corroding the transport systems and catalysts poisoning during petroleum refining in the downstream. Several process variables are believed to affect the ease with which emulsified water can be separated from emulsions. Some of the issues have not been extensively examined in the literature. The simplicity with which water is separated from petroleum changes with age (after formation) of the emulsion; notwithstanding, this subject has not been investigated broadly in literature. This study tries to assess the correlation between aging time, water cut, crude oil viscosity, water viscosity and amount of solids and viscosity of petroleum emulsions. To achieve that, a response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to design the experiment. Synthetic emulsions were prepared from an Offshore Malaysian Crude oil based on the DoE design and were aged for 7 days. The emulsions viscosities were measured at 60-degree Celsius using an electromagnetic viscometer (EV100). The broad pressure and temperature range of the HPHT viscometer permit the imitation of acute conditions under which such emulsions may form. The data obtained from the RSM analysis was used to develop a prediction model using gene expression programming (GEP). It was discovered that the viscosity of water has no effect on the viscosities of the studied emulsions, as does the water cut and amount of solids. The most significant factor that affects emulsion viscosity is the aging time, with the emulsion becoming more viscous over time. This is believed to be imminent because of variations in the interfacial film structure. This is followed by the amount of solids, also believed to be as a result of increasing coverage at the interface of the water droplets, limiting the movements of the dispersed droplets (reduced coalescence), thereby increasing the viscosity of the emulsions.