Paraffin Deposition In Pipelines Research Articles

Biodegradation of paraffin wax using Bacillus sp. SASH for quality improvement of crude oil properties

Biodegradation has become the most preferred and sustainable mean of reducing paraffin wax, removing paraffin deposition in pipelines and improving the flow of petroleum products. The current study focuses on the isolation of bacteria that has the capability to utilize paraffin as a sole carbon source and has been screened using 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP) dye as redox indicator. The bacterium was identified as Bacillus sp. SASH according to its 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. It is a moderate halophile that can grow in seawater at pH 7 and 37 °C. Bacillus sp. SASH was able to degrade various paraffinic products such as paraffin wax, heavy wax distillates, and liquid paraffin and it showed up to 84% paraffin wax degradation. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis revealed that higher carbon chains after retention time of 18 min were removed after treatment of the wax with the bacterium. Bacillus sp. SASH enhanced the flow of different petroleum products by reducing their viscosity and pour point values. It was also able to reduce the viscosity and improve the flow of crude oil by 60%.

Analysis of the Structure of Viscous Oil Flow for the Development of a System to Prevent the Formation of Paraffin Deposits in Pipelines

The detection of paraffin deposits in the systems of main oil pipelines today is a very important problem, since they lead to emergency oil spills, environmental disasters and economic losses both for the enterprise and for the country as a whole. This work is aimed at studying the physicochemical properties of asphaltic resin paraffins, as well as the mechanism of phase transition from liquid to crystalline. Such studies make it possible to estimate the absorption coefficient of the paraffin phase, which was previously not possible due to the complex nature of oil, consisting of hydrocarbons and many organic compounds of various molecular weights, and to provide high-precision non-contact measurements of the concentration of suspended asphalt-resin-paraffins in the oil flow in the pipeline. The analysis of the morphology and chemical composition of paraffins of various deposits is carried out, the dependence of the phase transition depending on the temperature gradient is determined.

Development of a system for automated control of oil transportation in the Arctic region to prevent the formation of paraffin deposits in pipelines

The paper introduces a unique methodology of preventing and controlling the formation of paraffin deposits in oil pipelines, which is a matter of urgency in regions with negative temperatures, including the Arctic regions. The paper presents the configuration and specific parameters of the developed measuring unit. The proposed measuring unit is capable of detecting the formation of a paraffin layer during its early stages and predicting its composition. Simultaneous use of two radioisotope sensors allows increasing the performance capabilities of the measuring unit, namely to detect the formation of a paraffin layer in the early stages and to issue a signal to amplify the control signal to control the oil pipeline paraffinisation. In addition, the use of a radioisotope unit instead of a single sensor will increase the accuracy of component-wise flow rate measurement, by making an allowance for paraffin deposits formation. The use of customized information processing algorithms also allows determining oil viscosity with high accuracy. The paper deals with an optimization of a system for automated control of a promising method of electric heating via the skin-cables, wherein safety factors of up to 36% are currently used, i.e. in most cases, 1/3 excess electric power is generated. The safety of using the radioisotope measuring technique is proven.