Flow Assurance-

Organic Deposit Removal Methods

Unit V
 Organic Deposits
Problem Transportation of crude oil
via deepwater pipelines

Reason - Viscous nature of crude

- Wax deposition at low
temperature

Result - Decreased production

- Equipment breakdown
- Production shutdown
- Economic loss
 Organic Deposits Removal Methods

Chemical Chemical Non-Chemical Microbial

Mechanical methods Heat application
reactions solvents methods methods

Coiled tubing Hot oiling CCl4, CS2, etc Ultrasonic

Bacterial Cultures
Exothermic
chemical reactions
generating heat
Pigs Proprietary solvents Magnetic Field
Water /Steam
injection Conditioning

Proprietary
Moles Microbial Culture
Products (MCP)
Laser
Electrical pipe
heating
 Mechanical Removal Methods
• Jetting
• Pigs
• Application of pressure and heat
• Cutters
• Combination of the above
 Coiled tubing
• Hand jetting used for deposit removal on the
surface
• Coiled tubing (CT) used to place the jetting
tools into the wellbore for cleaning purposes.
– Section of tubing
– Perforations and screens
– Subsea pipelines
 Coiled tubing
• 2000 to 15000 ft length
• Continuous length of pipe wound round a
spool
• Pipe straightened before pushing into the
wellbore
• Rewound to coil the pipe back onto the
transport and storage spool.
 Coiled tubing
• Used to circulate water, water + solids,
chemicals used to remove deposits (waxes +
asphaltenes)
Coiled tubing
Hydraulic Jetting
 Pigs
• Mechanical maintenance tools
• Pigs are defined as devices inserted that are
inserted into a line and travel throughout its
length to remove debris or scales as well as
lighter organic deposits, driven by a product
flow or another fluid
• Moles are units that can be pulled by a line or
are sometimes self-propelled
Pigs and moles
 Basic mechanics of the use of pigs
• Sealing elements of pigs provide a positive
interface with the pipe wall.
• Pigs are driven by applying pressure in the
direction of movement.. Usually by fluid
• Pig will move only when the applied pressure
is greater than the opposing frictional force.
This pressure is called breakup pressure.
• Positive interface imparts cleaning action.
 Pigging forces
• Baseline force
– To move a pig in a clean pipe
• Breaking force
– Causes plastic deformation of the wax layer
• Wax plug transportation force
– To move the wax plug out of the pipe
Types of pigs
Different pig geometries

Ref: http://www.pollyaim.ca/
 Problem with pigging

Stuck pig

• Remedies
– Pigs with holes…. to enable oil to bypass the pig
– Progressive pigging.. Send a soft foam pig and then an
aggressive cleaning pig
 Other options
• Pig train…
– combines mechanical and chemical cleaning
• Gelly pigs..
– Instead of mechanical pigs, viscous fluid called Gelly
pig is sent.
• Soak and cough…
– Chemicals are pumped in, pressurised and allowed to
soak (24 hours). Pressure is released, line is restarted
to induce a slug to remove the deposit.
 Other mechanical devices
• Rod scrappers
– Cutting device attached to the sucker rod string in
rod pump wells
• Wireline scrappers
– Attached to a wireline tool
• Gauge cutters
– Bottom end contains a metal ring that can cut
through the wax contamination
Methods for hydrate plug removal
• Pressurization
• Depressurization
• Applied heat
 Pressurization
• Method requires a source of pressure greater
than the bottomhole pressure
• Disadvantage
– Increased pressure tends to solidfy the plug in the
hydrate forming region
 Depressurization
• Enables the deposit to leave the hydrate
region and thus become gas and water again
• Rapid depressurization should be avoided…
leads to Joule Thomson cooling
• One sided depressurization to be avoided ..
Otherwise the hydrate plug may form a
projectile which can cause damage to the
downstream equipment.
 Applied heat
• Applying heat by mechanical means or
circulation of hot fluid.. or.. By exothermic
reactions
• Can be used where the plug location is known
and dissociation can be controlled.
• Heat to be applied on the outside of the plug
and not inside…?
 Heat Application
• To maintain the temperature below the WAT
• Heating obtained by circulation of hot fluid or
electrical methods
 Chemical Solvents
• o-Xylene
• Carbon tetrachloride
• Carbon disulphide
 Generic organic deposits & solvent types
Deposit Type General Cleaning Solvent
F1 Light hydrocarbons C1 to C6 Degassing and light oil removal by
detergents
F2 Gasoline, diesel and fuel oils Degassing and light oil removal by
detergents
F3 Motor oils, greases, crude oil Remove with alkaline detergents and light
solvents
F4 Tar and asphaltic deposits Aromatic solvents followed by alkaline
detergents
F5 Black hard solids with polymer Alkaline detergents, organic solvents with
matrix accelerators
F6 Black hard solids with coke matrix Mechanical methods
F7 Linear poly olefins High temperature oils or solvents followed
by detergents
F8 Crosslinked polymers Mechanical methods
 Generalized commercial solvents
• Carbon disulphide
• Solvents based on aromatic chemicals
• Surfactants with polystyrene based copolymers
• Formulations containing terpene solvents +
polypropylene glycol ethers and surfactants in a
water base
• Microemulsions comprising of
– Oil phase
– An aqueous phase comprising of a solution of a water
soluble oil field or a gas field chemical
– surfactant
Solvents and dispersants for waxes
• Surfactant classes
– Alkyl sulphonates
– Alkyl aryl sulphonates
– Polyethylene glycol ether di tertiary butyl phenol
materials

Proportion of surfactants used is 0.4-1.25%

 Other sources
• Solvents used to dissolve printing inks… which
is mixture of polar compounds
• Act as freezing point depressants
 Acids/detergents/emulsions
Anionic surfactants Nonionic surfactants
Fatty acid soaps Ethoxylated nonionic surfactants..
Condensation products of ethylene oxide
with aliphatic alcohols
Alpha olefin sulfonate Ethoxylated nonionic surfactants..
Condensation products of ethylene oxide
with nonyl phenol, butyl phenol, di-nonyl
phenol, octyl phenol or other phenols
Sulfonates
Amine ethoxylates
Amine salts or LAB sulfonic acid
Aromatic sulfonates comprising of
cumene, xylene and toluene sulfonate
Earth metal salts of olefin sulfonate and
alcohol sulfates and sulfonates
Blends of the above
 Acids
Acids
Hydrochloric acid Acetic
Phosphoric acid Fumaric
Sulfuric acid Maelic
Hydrofluoric Glutaric
Nitric Glutamic
Citric
Oxalic

Preferred : HCl
Hydrocarbon solvents

Kerosene
Gasoline
Diesel
Jet fuel
Xylene

Preferred : Kerosene
 ‘Paraban’ technology
• Using liquid sulfur trioxide for paraffins and
asphaltenes from wells
• leaves a water wet surface that would resist
the build up of more organic foulants

• Safety issues in handling of SO3.

 Ultrasonic method
• Degenerate the wax formed at the walls
• Increase the temperature of crude oil
 Magnetic Fluid Conditioning
• Viscosity and WAT of crude oil decrease with
the application of magnetic field.
• Controversial results
 Bacterial Methods
• Bacteria capable of degrading paraffin wax
• Bacteria produce biosurfactants which reduce
interfacial tension and increase the solubility
of paraffins.
• Strain generally used: Pseudomonas and
Bacillus