Bio-Diesel Based Additive for Enhancing Flow of Emulsion in Pipeline

Abstract

Emulsions are difficult to transport in the oil and gas industry due to its water content and high viscosity property, thus a need arises to break these emulsions down into lighter emulsions that would make it a lot more suitable for transportation. In this research, biodiesel was synthesized and used to break down relatively viscous emulsion samples into lighter emulsion samples. An apparatus was designed with the aim of determining the flowrate of four different samples in different proportions and compositions: 80% oil and 20% water (sample A), 90% sample A + 10% of biodiesel by volume (sample B), 75% of sample A + 25% of biodiesel by volume (sample C), 60% of sample A + 40% biodiesel by volume (sample D). The results showed that it was possible to significantly increase the flow of emulsions by injecting biodiesel, which was acted as a surfactant, resulting in the lowering of the surface tension of the emulsion sample. The relevance of this research work is validated as it proffers a solution to the transportation of heavy oil and emulsions from all over the world possessing the non-Newtonian flow behavior, which results in serious problems related to its transportation.