Mysara Mohyaldinn

By Mysara E. Mohyaldinn, Anas M. Hassan and Mohammed A. Ayoub

Hydrocarbons are produced and transported in a form of mixtures containing oil, gas, and water plus organic and inorganic contaminants. The flow presence of these contaminants (emulsifiers) with the continuous agitation from reservoirs up to surface facilities leads to formation of tight emulsions that need to be dealt with carefully to treat and process them adequately. Emulsions, in the other hand, are sometimes intentionally formed for using in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and well stimulation. In EOR, emulsions are formed and injected into the reservoirs for the objective of improving both the microscopic displacement efficiency and the macroscopic sweep efficiency, which leads to higher recovery factor. In well stimulation emulsified acids are used during matrix acidizing and acid fracturing to retard acid reaction with rocks, to generate deeper penetration inside the reservoir. Microemulsion is a form of emulsion with less droplet size, and hence higher stability, that occasionally used during EOR and hydraulic fracturing to further improve the reservoir recovery and well production rate. This chapter discusses the application of emulsions and microemulsions in petroleum industry. The chapter discusses emulsions, microemulsions, emulsification processes, application of emulsions and microemulsions in enhanced oil recovery and well stimulations, and ended with conclusions.

Part of the book: Microemulsion

By Hazlina Husin, Mysara Eissa Mohyaldinn Elhaj and Colin D. Wood

Asphaltenes deposition is considered as Achilles’s heel in the oil industry. The nucleation, precipitation and deposition of asphaltenes reduce the production rate significantly in affected wells and sometimes it can completely block the flow by plugging the flowlines, tubing and process facilities, in severe cases. This chapter evaluates the extrinsic and the intrinsic (thermodynamic) factors within the heavy crude oil production system. The main consequences of asphaltenes deposition are discussed such as the solvent-to-crude oil dilution ratio, crude oil physical properties (cloud point, pour point and API gravity), chemical solvent type (carbon number, functional group), agitation time and temperature changes. This chapter is expected to become the means for understanding the factors affecting the asphaltenes nucleation, precipitation and deposition.

Part of the book: Processing of Heavy Crude Oils

By Mysara Eissa Mohyaldinn, Hazlina Husin, Nurul Hasan, Mohamed M.B. Elmubarak, Ahmed M.E. Genefid and Mahmood E.A. Dheeb

Transportation of waxy crude oil faces great challenges due to shear and temperature dependency. At high temperatures, waxy crude exhibits low viscous Newtonian behavior where the resistance to flow due to friction is low, and hence low pumping pressure is required to transport it. At low temperatures, however, the crude exhibits shear thinning non-Newtonian behavior where its apparent viscosity becomes shear-dependent. In such cases, the operated pipeline needs to maintain a high pressure to guarantee a continuous flow. Moreover, due to heat transfer between the internal pipeline and surroundings, oil temperature declines along the pipeline. It follows that the crude viscosity and, hence, frictional resistance increase. If the flow is interrupted for any reason, i.e., emergency or planned shutdown, then the restartability of the pipeline becomes a challenge because of the nonexistence of heating generated from friction. In this chapter, the challenges normally facing transportation of waxy crude oil will be discussed. The chapter will introduce the rheological properties of waxy crude oil and explain and describe how these properties can affect the pressure losses inside the pipeline during its operation and shutdown. The measures that need to be considered when designing a waxy crude pipeline will be discussed.

Part of the book: Processing of Heavy Crude Oils