Final Year Project I

Investigating the potential of task specific

solvents for preventing naphthenates
deposition in oil production facilities
By: Muhamad Amir Johan bin Abdul Aziz, 16002542

Supervisor: Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

Outline of Presentation

PROBLEM INTRODUCTION OBJECTIVES SCOPES METHODOLOGY

STATEMENT

GANTT CHART LITERATURE CONCLUSION

& MILESTONES REVIEW
 Introduction – Naphthenate Deposition

 Not a new issues discovered.

 Commonly occur in the topside facilities.

 Causing decrement in the efficiency of

production activity.

1
 Introduction – Naphthenic Acids

 Form of high temperature corrosion.

 Known as C80 – Tetraacids or ARN acid.

 Molecules are amphiphiles.

 Carboxylate salt naturally occurs.

CnH2n-z O2
2
 Problem Statement

 Nothing is clear about refining process of

naphthenic acid.

_____
 Naphthenic acid occurrence is very
uncertain.
 Highly cost impact.

R. Chakravarthy et. al. stated that,

• Crude oil extraction, transportation, and its processing is a great challenge to petroleum refineries
in terms of economic costs and benefits.

3
 Objectives

• To investigate the behaviour of naphthenate deposition in oil facilities.

• To develop an optimum inhibitor to control the corrosion.

• To evaluate the effectiveness of inhibitor to reduce the naphthenate deposition

in flow pipeline.

4
 Scopes

To determine the
To identify the reactivity of these acids
corrosive acids found by Fourier transform
within a crude oil to infrared (FT-IR)
tackle the analysis in spectroscopy and
naphthenic acid electrochemical
methods

Physical Chemical
parameter parameter

5
 Methodology - Overview

Literature Review on the Data Gathering on different Preparation of metal

metal naphthenate metal naphthenate naphthenate and evaluate
deposition and factors that formation as in uncertain using different physical and
affect on corrosion. conditions. chemical parameters.

Comparison of the results Take note on the mitigation

Documentation of Result between the different of metal naphthenates
parameters. formation.

5
 Methodology – Propose Method

1. Using Alcoholic Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) crude oil

extraction technique.

2. Naphthenic acid extraction from laboratory re-

precipitated calcium naphthenate precipitate

6
 Methodology - Material
Crude Oil Sample Sodium Hydroxide Distilled Water Glacial Acetic Acid

Potassium Hydroxide Methanol Toluene Solution Hydrochloric Acid

7
 Gantt Chart & Milestones

January February March

Activities
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12
Project Selection                        
Preliminary Research Work                        
Literarute Review Studies                        
Experimental Material Request                        
Design Eperimental Micromodel Device                        
Submission of Progress Monitoring 1                        
Micromodel Design and Fabrication                        
Interim Draft Report Submission                        
Proposal Defence                        
Submission of Progress Monitoring 2                        
Final Interim Report Submission                        

8
 Gantt Chart & Milestones

May June July

Activities
W13 W14 W15 W16 W17 W18 W19 W20 W21 W22 W23 W24

Literature Review

Laboratory Work

Laboratory Analysis

Thesis Preparation (First Draft)

Result Analysis

Result Discussion

Thesis Preparation

Thesis Submission

9
 Literature Review
Title
Calcium naphthenate solid
deposit identification and
control in offshore Nigerian
fields
Source Method used Results
Oduola, Lukman , Igwebueze, “The pH of the system was The choice of high dose rate
Clement , Smith, Oluwaseun , adjusted to above 8.0 with was to mimic acidic
Vijn, P.. , and Andrew G. NaHCO3. pH adjustment was formulations, which are
Shepherd. "Calcium made to simulate fluid known to be used at
Naphthenate Solid Deposit property changes as per field concentrations between 100
Identification and Control in conditions” to 1000ppm.
Offshore Nigerian Fields."
Paper presented at the SPE
International Symposium on
Oilfield Chemistry, The
Woodlands, Texas, USA, April
2013. doi: 
https://doi.org/10.2118/1640
55-MS
10
 Literature Review
Title
Preventing Naphthenate
Stabilised Emulsions and
Naphthenate Deposits on
Fields Producing Acidic Crude
Oils
Source
Hurtevent, Christian, and Sen
Ubbels. "Preventing
Naphthenate Stabilised
Emulsions and Naphthenate
Deposits at Ekoundou Oil Field
in Cameroon." Paper
presented at the SPE
International Oilfield Scale
Symposium, Aberdeen, UK,
May 2006. doi:  dynamic contact angles,
https://doi.org/10.2118/1004
30-MS
Method used
“One of the most commonly
used instruments for orienting
the design of naphthenate
inhibitor molecules is the CAM
200. The CAM 200 is a fully
computer controlled surface
tension meter, comprising a
digital video camera for
measuring the static and
surface free energies,
absorption and surface
tension of liquids, using the
pendant drop method. ”
Results
The final result was an
excellent separation of the
emulsion, clean separated
water, no remaining slops
or/and sludges and a crude
that met the export
specification of less than 0.5%
BS&W.
11
 Literature Review
Title Source
Fighting Naphthenate Vindstad, Jens Emil, Bye, Arne
Deposition at the Heidrun S., Grande, Knut V., Hustad,
Field Britt M., Hustvedt, Egil, and
Bjørn Nergård. "Fighting
Naphthenate Deposition at
the Heidrun Field." Paper
presented at the International
Symposium on Oilfield Scale,
Aberdeen, United Kingdom,
January 2003. doi: 
https://doi.org/10.2118/8037
5-MS
Method used
“HCl was added sequentially. .
Over a period of 6 days with
the same well on a test
separator, 9 hours of normal
operation was followed by 3
hours HCl injection. The
injection rate was about 400
mg/l water, corresponding to
pH ~ 3.5.”
Results
When the test separator was
inspected after the test,
substantial amounts of
naphthenate were found. This
method was, in other words,
no substitute for continuous
injection.
12
Conclusion

To be able to describes the understanding of the basic mechanisms of

naphthenate formation.

To be able to develop the efficient inhibitors to preventing or minimizing

the calcium naphthenate in oil production facilities.

Not only that I hope also that this deep learning system are able to achieve
the objectives stated and success to have an accuracy of 90% to 100%.

I hope also that I can optimize consumables sufficiently accuracy at

minimum cost.

13
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