Recently oil and gas production activities are moving to offshore which in many cases have low temperature below wax appearance temperature of the oil & gas produced from these reservoirs. Therefore oil and gas industry spend huge amount of money to prevent/treat wax deposits. The primary aim of this research work is to develop a tool for preventing /eliminating wax deposition in oil and gas production and transport system, using locally sourced piezoelectric energy generating materials.
Samples of waxy crudes were sourced from Niger Delta field and characterized for the purpose of this experiment. Natural quartz was sourced from Bauchi State while two semi-precious metals, zinc and lead were sourced from Jos Metallurgical Development Centre, Plateau State of Nigeria. Tool was fabricated using locally sourced quartz, semiprecious metals and aluminium which was fixed in to a simulated flow line. The experiment was performed in laboratory.
The results showed that as the waxy crude samples were flown past through the tool the quantity of wax deposits reduced drastically. It was observed that zinc + quartz proved more effective (about 58%) than lead + quartz (35%) when the performance on a sample (OSS-3) was which proved to be potentially more problematic were compared. In conclusion, the fabricated tool from quartz and semi-precious metals proved various degree of effectiveness depending on the sample of oil being treated.
For the first time a tool that generates piezoelectric energy, locally fabricated in Nigeria was used to prevent wax deposition in flow lines (laboratory scale). Also mechanism surrounding the process of preventing wax deposit by piezoelectric energy has been better understood from this research work. This research has added more value to the importance of piezoelectric materials. Complete flow model has been fabricated and flow tested on laboratory scale. The basic limitation is the inability to carry out field test and lack of support/collaboration from industry.
