A study on the use of plant seed oils, triethanolamine and xylene as flowimprovers of Nigerian waxy crude oil
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2016AbstractChemical methods are the most convenient and economical for wax precipitation and deposition prevention. The chemical additives so far inuse have varied limitations, ranging from high cost to limited spread of crude oil that a particular additive can handle. The influence of cheapernatural chemicals, obtained from plant seeds (jatropha – JSO, rubber – RSO and castor – CSO) on the rheological properties and wax depositiontendencies of Nigerian waxy crude oil were investigated. Previously tested synthetic chemical additives (triethanolamine – TEA and xylene) weresimultaneously examined too on the crude oils for comparative study. Four different crude oil samples obtained from Niger Delta region of Nigeriaused for the study were characterized to obtain their hydrocarbon composition, wax content, pour points, viscosities, specific gravity and APIgusing standard methods. The rheological properties such as apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield stress were determined for the crude oilsdoped and undoped with the chemical additives using Fann V-G Standard Viscometer. The results obtained revealed that oils from the three seedscould be used as flow improvers and pour depressants for Nigerian waxy crude oil. Jatropha and castor seed oils depressed the pour point than thepreviously investigated triethanolamine. They are capable of depressing the pour point up to about 17◦C, and they can also reduce the viscosity ofthe waxy crude oil appreciably within 0.1–0.3% (v/v) dosage concentration. Also, CSO could exhibit as high as 77.7% paraffin inhibition efficiency(PIE) and JSO 73.5% at low concentration of doping.
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T Technology (General), TP Chemical technology