The Formation of Waxy Crude Oil-in-water Emulsions for the Reduction of Pour Point and Viscosity

Waxy crude oil is characterized by high pour point and poor flow properties, which bring great difficulty to the oil exploitation and transportation. In this study, the fluidity of waxy crude oil with the pour point of 47°C was highly improved by emulsification with synthetic formation water used as aqueous phase. It was found that the combination of CAO-35 and sodium oleate was an effective emulsifier mixture to form stable waxy crude oil-in-water emulsion and when the mass ratio of oil to water was 7:3, the optimum composition of emulsifying additives with respect to the total mass of the emulsion was obtained as follows: emulsifier mixture (the mass ratio of CAO-35 to sodium oleate was 8:2) 0.4% (w/w), sodium triphosphate 0.028% (w/w), NaOH 0.05% (w/w), and polyacrylamide 0.15% (w/w). Diverse factors affecting the pour point of the formed emulsion were also studied. It was found that the pour point of emulsion increased as oil content increased and the optimum mixing speed and cooling rate were 600 rpm and 0.5°C/min, respectively. Under the optimum emulsifying conditions, when mixing speeds were 250 and 600 rpm, respectively, by forming O/W emulsions with the oil content of 70%, the pour point reductions were 20 and 25°C, respectively, and the corresponding viscosity reductions were 89.79% and 97.46% (40°C), respectively. Thus the pour point and viscosity of waxy crude oil are obviously reduced by forming oil-in-water emulsion, which is highly promising for the exploitation and transportation of waxy crude oil.