SPE 93558
Live Oils Novel Organic Solid Deposition and Control Device: Wax Deposition
Validation
M. Zougari* and A. Hammami, Schlumberger, and G. Broze and N. Fuex, Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc.
Copyright 2005, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 14th SPE Middle East Oil & Gas Show and
Conference held in Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, Bahrain, 12–15 March 2005.
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Abstract
A novel laboratory-scale flow assurance tool termed
“Organic Solids Deposition and Control (OSDC)” device has
been developed to assess the potential and severity of organic
solids deposition problems from hydrocarbon fluids at realistic
production and/or transportation conditions. Based on
optimized Taylor-Couette flow in concentric cylinder
geometry, the OSDC mimics production conditions of
temperature, pressure, composition, turbulence, shear, surface
type and roughness. These key parameters can be accurately
and independently controlled, allowing the deposition tests to
be conducted over a wide range of conditions. Uniquely, this
new device can simulate production system thermal-hydraulic
conditions and produce fully developed turbulent flow for the
live fluids and stock tank oils investigated. Heat transfer and
fluid dynamics in the device were characterized through
careful and detailed experimentation. Deposition tests
performed on small volumes of live waxy crude oils resulted
in the generation of reproducible wax deposits under
consistent test conditions. The wax deposition rates were
comparable to those from pilot-scale flow loops that utilized
larger volume of fluid.
Introduction
Organic solids (waxes, asphaltenes, hydrates and/or
diamondoids) are encountered in all facets of petroleum
production and transportation. Figure 1 shows a phase
diagram for typical Gulf of Mexico deepwater black oils1.
Phase boundaries for wax, asphaltene and hydrates are shown
along with the liquid-vapor phase envelope of the oil.
Changes in pressure, temperature and/or composition
often induce precipitation and potentially deposition of these
solids. Depending on the design and operation of the
production system, some or all of the solid phase boundaries
may be crossed as the fluid moves from the reservoir through
the flow line to arrival conditions at the host facility.
Precipitation and, more importantly, deposition of these solids
can have detrimental effects on the profitability of production
systems, especially in offshore operations. It is imperative that
the potential for and severity of organic solids deposition
problems be assessed early in the design process. If deposition
is likely, provisions for control and remediation must be
incorporated into both the system design and operating
strategy at an early stage. The risk and cost of these measures
can influence the decision to proceed with the development of
a prospect. Therefore, this decision must be based on sound
laboratory data obtained from representative samples.
Recognizing the limitations of existing deposition
techniques2-17, we undertook the design and development of a
novel lab-scale apparatus capable of mimicking the deposition
process of wax and/or asphaltene from live reservoir fluids
under realistic production and transportation conditions. While
developing a fundamental understanding of the deposition
process was deemed important, major emphasis was placed
upon designing and testing of an experimental set-up that
could meet the following key design criteria:
1. Requires only small sample quantities of expensive
bottom hole fluids.
2. Accurate temperature control: to ensure testing under
well-defined thermal conditions.
3. High-pressure adaptability: to allow testing of fluids
at reservoir conditions (up to 105 MPa).
4. Wide temperature range (-4ºC to 150ºC): to allow
simulation of seabed to reservoir temperatures.
5. Controlled shear at the wall: to enables scalability of
deposition results.
6. Well-defined hydrodynamics: to allow testing under
flow conditions ranging from laminar to fully
turbulent regimes.
7. Accuracy/precision of detection technique: to ensure
generation of reproducible and reliable data.
8. Ability and flexibility to test surface types and
roughness: to allow testing of actual pipeline
materials as well as assessment of new surface
materials and coatings.
9. Ability to test sour fluids: to allow testing of wide
variety of reservoir fluids
2 SPE 93558
Design of Organic Solids Deposition and Control
System
The OSDC was designed and developed to study the
fundamentals of physical and chemical processes governing
wax and asphaltene deposition from petroleum fluids. One of
the main objectives in designing the OSDC cell was to
generate experimental measurements of key parameters of
engineering significance. These include deposit quantification,
deposit composition, and deposition kinetics as a function of
temperature, pressure, shear, surface roughness and surface
type.
The OSDC device is based on flow between rotating
concentric cylinders, also known as the Taylor-Couette
system. A schematic diagram of the OSDC cell is shown in
Figure 2. As can be seen from the figure, the OSDC cell
comprises a central rotating cylinder and an outer stationary
cylinder with the process fluid occupying the annular space.
This cell design implies that a maximum fluid velocity exists
adjacent to the inner cylinder and zero velocity adjacent to the
stationary outer cylinder. The velocity profile thus obtained is
similar to that obtained in a pipe flow. The inner surface of
the outer cylinder serves as the deposition surface. For wax
deposition experiments, discussed in this paper the outer
cylinder surface is maintained at temperatures lower than the
bulk fluid and the wax appearance temperatures. Table 1
summarizes the performance conditions of the OSDC.
Case Studies
Wax Deposition Tests
Here, we present selected sets of experimental data
for wax deposition from both stock-tank and live-oil samples
of two petroleum fluids of significantly different origins.
Relevant properties of the two oils are provided in Table 2.
Four sets of experimental data will be discussed. A summary
of test conditions is provided in Table 3.
Results and Discussion. As summarized in Table 3,
two sets of experimental data – one corresponding to stock-
tank oil (atmospheric pressure) and other to live oil (13.8
MPa) – for each of the two oils were collected. Figure 3
presents the photographs showing the deposit formed on the
inside surface of the outer cylinder from the Gulf of Mexico
oil sample. The difference between the pre-rinse and post-
rinse deposit characteristics can be observed clearly from the
stark variation in the color of the deposits. The post-rinse
deposit is white (like candle wax) with a tint of yellow
indicative of slight oil entrapment in the n-paraffin rich
material. We classify this material as the true deposit. The pre-
rinse deposit has a darker color due to a layer of oil adhering
the actual deposit surface. Similar photographs showing the
pre-rinse and post-rinse deposits obtained from Thai oil
sample are shown in Figure 4.
At the end of each test, the fluids were displaced
from the OSDC, and opened to reveal the deposit.
Photographs of the deposit were taken as (pre-rinse stage).
The deposit was then washed with proper solvent to remove
the excess oil coating the whole deposit. New photographs of
the rinsed deposit (post-rinse stage) were then taken to
illustrate the distinctiveness of each stage.
One of the remarkable features that can be observed
from these photographs is the uniformity of the deposit
thickness. This indicates the uniformity of hydrodynamics
within the cell, which implies that deposition at any location
on the inner surface of the outer cylinder occurs under very
similar conditions. That is, there is negligible variation in
deposit characteristics over the entire deposition surface. This
allows the averaging of the relevant analyses of the total
deposit, such as composition, without introducing any
significant error.
The results of the analyses of the deposits are
presented in Tables 4 and 5. It can be seen from Table 4 that
the deposits from Gulf of Mexico stock tank oil (STO) as well
as corresponding live oil have very high wax content. Such
high wax contents (or low oil content) are usually referred to
as hard deposits. For the Thai oil, opposite trend was observed
and the reason for this disparity was not clear at this time but
is under investigation. Regardless, all four deposits are low in
oil contents unlike deposits obtained from cold finger type
bench-scale systems.18
One of the parameters that is important for
engineering purposes is the rate of deposition. Such rates
allow prediction of how much deposit would form over a
given period of time. This information is then utilized to plan
the pigging frequency to avoid impairment or blockage of the
flow-line. Table 5 provides the specific deposition rates
expressed in the units of mass of wax in the deposit per unit
area per unit time per temperature differential. The
temperature differential here is the difference in deposition
surface temperature and the wax appearance temperature of
the test oil. This temperature differential is the actual driving
force for the precipitation of wax. The specific deposition
rates for STO and live Thai oils are similar but those for the
Gulf of Mexico oil sample differ by over 20 percent. More
extensive analyses of these experimental data are underway.
Conclusions
A novel device called the Organic Solid Deposition and
Control (OSDC) cell has been designed, developed and
successfully tested for the study of organic solids deposition
from petroleum fluids. The cell is based on the Couette-Taylor
or concentric cylinder geometry. A detailed characterization of
the OSDC cell was completed and flow visualization
experiments showed that fully turbulent flow regime could be
obtained. The detailed characterization of OSDC behavior
reinforced that the data generated from the OSDC cell could
be readily scaled to pipeline conditions with respect to
relevant parameters such as wall shear stress and heat transfer
rate by conducting experiments under representative operating
conditions of high pressure and turbulent flow. The desired
functionality of the OSDC cell was successfully demonstrated
by conducting wax deposition tests on stock tank oil as well as
live oil samples. The key features of the wax deposit obtained
include uniform profiles and low oil content of the deposit.
SPE 93558 3

Acknowledgments 13. Mehrotra, A.K., "Comments on: Wax Deposition of

Bombay-High Crude under Flowing Conditions", Fuel,
The authors wish to thank Shell International E&P, 69, 1575-1576 (December 1990).
ChevronTexaco, DBR Group of Companies (now Oilphase- 14. Majeed, A., Bringedal, B., and Overa S., "Model
DBR, a division of Schlumberger Canada) for funding this Calculates Wax Deposition for N. Sea Oils", Oil & Gas
project and for their permission to publish the results. The Journal, 63-69 (Jun18, 1990).
authors would also like to acknowledge the contributions of 15. Hamouda, A.A., and Viken, B.K., "Wax Deposition
Nick Fuex, Peter Cornelisse, Vladimir Liakhovitch, and Alan Mechanism Under High-Pressure and in Presence of
Leitko of Shell Global Solutions, Jeff Creek, Nancy Burke & Light Hydrocarbons", SPE Paper 25189 (1993)
Mietek Boduszynski of ChevronTexaco, Abdel Kharrat and 16. Hsu, J.J.C. and Santamaria, M.M. "Wax Deposition of
Larry Holloway of Alberta Research Council, and Terry Waxy Live Crudes Under Turbulent Flow Conditions",
Sopkow; Ryan Jacobsen, Rob Lundstrom, Kent Knight, Rob SPE Paper 28480 (1994).
Fisher, Craig Borman, and Moin Muhammad of Oilphase – 17. Brown, T.S., Niesen, V.G. and Erickson, D.D.
DBR, Schlumberger. "Measurement and Prediction of the Kinetics of Paraffin
Deposition", SPE Paper 26548 (1994).
References:
18. Zougari, M.; Jacobs, S.; Ratulowski, J.; Hammami, A.;
Broze, G.; Flannery, M.; Stankiewicz, A. and Karan. K.
1. Ratulowski, J.; Amin, A.; Hammami, A.; Muhammad, M. “Organic Solids Deposition from Lve Oils: A Novel
and Riding, M. "Flow Assurance and Sub-sea Measurement Technique”. ASTAPHYS-MEX-2003,
Productivity: Closing the Loop with Connectivity and Petroleomics Symposium, Peurto Vallarta, August 25-29,
Measurements". SPE 90244. Presented at the 2004 SPE 2003.
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Houston,
Texas, 26-29 September (2004).
2. Jessen, P.W. and Howell, J.N. "Effect of Flow Rate on
Paraffin Accumulation in Plastic, Steel and Coated Pipe",
Petroleum Transactions, AIME, Vol. 213, pages (1958).
3. Cole, R.J. and Jessen, P.W. "Paraffin Deposition", The
Oil and Gas Journal, Vol. 58, No. 38, 87-91 (1960).
4. Hunt Jr., E. B., "Laboratory Study of Paraffin
Deposition", Journal of Petroleum Technology, 1259-
1269, (November 1962).
5. Jorda, "Paraffin Deposition and Prevention in Oil Wells",
Journal of Petroleum Technology, 1605-1612, (December
1966).
6. Patton, C.C. and Casad, B. M. "Paraffin Deposition from
Refined Wax-Solvent Systems", Society of Petroleum
Engineers Journal, 17-24 (March 1970).
7. Bott, T.R. and Gudmundsson, J.S. "Deposition of
Paraffin Wax from Kerosene in Cooled Heat Exchanger
Tubes", The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering,
55, 381-385 (1977).
8. Burger, E.D., Perkins, T.K., and Striegler, J.H. "Studies of
Wax Deposition in the Trans Alaska Pipeline", Journal of
Petroleum Technology, 1075-1086, (June 1981).
9. Newberry, M.E. "Chemical Effects on Crude Oil Pipeline
Pressure Problems", Journal of Petroleum Technology,
779-786, (May 1984).
10. Weingarten, J.S. and Euchner, J.A. "Methods for
Predicting Wax Precipitation and Deposition", SPE
Production Engineering, 121-126 (February 1988).
11. Hartley, R. and bin Jadid, M. "Use of Laboratory and
Field Testing to Identify Potential Production Problems in
the Troll Field", SPE Production Engineering, 34-40
(February 1989).
12. Agrawal, K.M., Khan, H.U., Surianarayanan, M. and
Joshi, G.C. "Wax Deposition of Bombay-High Crude
under Flowing Conditions", Fuel, 69, 794-796 (June
1990).
4 SPE 93558

Table 1. OSDC System Parameters and Characteristics

Table 5. Analyses of Wax Deposition Rate

Parameter Value
Oil Sample T Deposition Deposit Wax Specific
Sample Volume ~130cc
Time Area Deposit Deposition
o
Heat transfer and Deposition 125cm2 ( C) (hr) (cm2) (mg) Rate
(mg/cm2-hr-
Area o
C)
Secondary Flow Rate Up to 50 l/min Gulf of STO 2.6 3.0 128.4 137.8 0.138
Mexico Live 3.3 3.0 128.4 221.1 0.174
Secondary Valves Rating 1000,000 step
Oil
Temperature Rating -20°C to 200°C STO 4.8 3.0 128.4 571.8 0.309
Thailand Live 5.0 3.0 128.4 608.1 0.316
Pressure Rating Up to 15,000psi
Oil
Rotational Speed Up to 7,200 rpm
Surface Roughness Any
Surface Type Any
Controlled shear Yes
Flow Regime Laminar to Turbulent
Sour Fluid Yes

Table 2. Relevant Properties of Two Crude Oil Samples Used in Wax

Deposition Tests
Oil Density Wax Pour Normal
Sample (API Appearance Point Paraffin
Gravity) Temperature (n-C20+)
(oC) (oC) (wt%)
Gulf of 36 34-35 -35 1.3
Mexico
Thailand 35 56-57 29-38 20.0

Table 3. Summary of Wax Deposition Test Conditions

No of Oil Samples Two oils at two conditions (STO and Live
Oil)
Pressure Atmospheric and 13.8 MPa

Temperature WAT – 2 or 3 oC
Spindle Rotation Speed 100 Hz

Reynolds Number GoM: 2.5 × 104 and 1.3 × 105

(Turbulent Regime) Thai: 2.0 × 104 and 7 × 104

Table 4. Quantification of Wax Deposit

Oil Sample Whole Wax Wax Content
Deposit (mg) (wt%)
(mg)
Gulf of Mexico STO 183.4 137.8 75.2
Live Oil 261.1 221.1 84.7

Thailand STO 815.1 571.8 70.2

Live Oil 1355.5 608.1 44.9

SPE 93558 5

16000
Pre-Rinse Post-Rinse

14000

Stock-Tank
12000 Wax
Reservoir
Pressure (psia)

10000

Hydrate
8000

6000
Asphaltene

Live
4000

Bubble Point
2000
Flow line
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Figure 3. Photographs showing wax deposits formed on the
inner surface of stationary cylinder from Gulf of Mexico
Temperature
Temperature (oF) STO and corresponding live oil.

Figure 1. Gulf of Mexico Black Oil Phase Diagram

Pre-Rinse Post-Rinse

ro
Stock-Tank

ri

Ω H
Live

Figure 4. Photographs showing wax deposits formed on the

inner surface of stationary cylinder from Thai STO and
corresponding live oil.
Figure 2. Schematic representation of the OSDC Cell flow
principals