Title: Effect of extracted natural surfactant on flow behaviour of heavy crude oil

Authors: Shirsendu Banerjee; Ravindra Kumar; Irshad Ansari; Ajay Mandal; Tarun Kumar Naiya

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Dhanbad – 826004, Jharkhand, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Dhanbad – 826004, Jharkhand, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Dhanbad – 826004, Jharkhand, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Dhanbad – 826004, Jharkhand, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Dhanbad – 826004, Jharkhand, India

Abstract: This research article investigates experimental techniques to determine applicability of a natural surfactant on crude oil rheological behaviour through pipelines. Three crude oil samples were obtained from ONGC, Gujarat. The surfactant was extracted in laboratory using extracts from naturally occurring plant sapindus mukorrossi or soapnut. The effect of this surfactant on wax crystal structure and crystal size distribution was analysed using cross polarised light microscope and dynamic light scattering techniques. The flow characteristics investigated included pour point and viscosity. Results obtained using dynamic light scattering provided a remarkable reduction in area of wax crystals after addition of surfactant. Microscopic studies showed change in size and structure of wax crystals establishing effectiveness of surfactant. Pour point and viscosity decreased to significant value after adding 4% w/w surfactant to the crude oil samples. The study also determined the possible mechanism behind improvement of rheological properties through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analyses. [Received: December 12, 2014; Accepted: June 24, 2015]

Keywords: heavy crude oil; sapindus mukorrossi; soapnut; natural surfactant; viscosity; pour point; particle size distribution; dynamic light scattering; microscopic studies; FTIR; flow behaviour; rheology; oil pipelines; India; wax crystal structure; crystal size distribution; wax crystals.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2016.079266

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2016 Vol.13 No.3, pp.260 - 276

Received: 19 Dec 2014
Accepted: 24 Jun 2015
Published online: 26 Sep 2016 *

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