An experimental and modelling approach of paraffin wax deposition on flow rate for crude oil pipeline corrosion

This paper aims to experiment and model paraffin wax deposition on flow Rate for crude oil pipeline corrosion. Heavy paraffin deposits are unfavorable because they reduce the effective size of flow conduits and reduce the well's rate of production. When large amounts of paraffin are deposited, they must be removed mechanically, thermally, or otherwise, resulting in costly downtime and greater operating costs. Corrosion rate against time was conducted, to determine the effect of the paraffin wax deposit on corrosion of crude oil pipeline, the results of the corrosion rate were recorded and analyzed, the experiment was terminated by stopping the pump. The procedure is performed to experiment and model paraffin wax deposition on flow rate for crude oil pipeline corrosion. The experiment was conducted by varying the time 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 minutes at different temperature of 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 oC and flow rate kept constant at 40.28 L/min. At time 12 and 18 minutes, the experimental and model results predicted a significant reduction of corrosion rates while others gave only moderate or negligible protection to the crude oil pipeline. From the profile plot, the values of the corrosion rate (mpy) against time (min) of the experimental and model results are 3 (0.96 mpy, 0.9058 mpy), 6 (0.68 mpy, 0.7876 mpy), 9 (0.87 mpy, 0.6694 mpy), 12 (0.32 mpy, 0.5512 mpy), 15 (0.45 mpy, 0.433 mpy), 18 (0.38 mpy, 0.3148 mpy). But the variation of the experimental and model results in terms of deviation is (0.05%) indicating that both results are insignificant in variation, showing positive agreement between the experimental and model results. However, it can be deduced that the long chain paraffin layer was physically removed from the surface during periods of elevated flow rate or temperature, resulting in the loss of the majority of the corrosion protection.