Experimental Research of Viscosity Reduction and Dehydration of

Crude Oil by High Frequency Radiation

Ai jun Wei

, Jun bin Chen

, Yi fei Liu

and Huayi Jiang

Provincial Key Laboratory Unusual Well Stimulation, Xian Shiyou University,Xian China

*Study on high frequency dehydration technology of water-cut crude oil in low permeability oil field.12JSO81

Keywords: Crude oil, High-Frequency radiation, Viscosity reduction, Dehydration.

Abstract: Aiming at the problem of high viscosity and difficult dehydration of the heavy oil during the exploitation

and utilization, based on the principle of high frequency radiation, it is investigated by using high power

high frequency radiation experimental equipment designed by ourselves, and analysed on influence of high

frequency radiation time on the viscosity reduction and the dehydration ratio. The results show that high

frequency radiating crude oil can reduce the viscosity of crude oil，meanwhile, high frequency radiation

dehydration effect is good, radiation time increases, dehydration rate increases sharply. It is shown that

microwave technology provides an important reference and has a better application prospect in the field.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the petroleum industry, the production and

pipeline transportation of viscous crude oil are all

caused by its high viscosity, which has brought great

difficulties to the pipeline transportation of oil and

caused great energy waste and environmental

pollution[1,2].The viscosity is very high. In the

transportation technology of heavy oil, a lot of

money is spent to reduce the viscosity of heavy oil

effectively. At present, the process of pipeline

transportation of waxy crude oil is mainly heat

insulation transportation, dilution transportation of

hydrocarbon substances or combination of dilution

and heating. However, there are many problems,

such as high fuel consumption, large labor and

equipment consumption, difficulty in starting after

the accident stopping transportation. In the process

of production of crude oil, crude oil is moisture,

along with the deepening of oilfield development,

use of water flooding oil field water content of crude

oil is higher gradually, this cause that there is a

certain lack of oilfield production. Heavy oil

containing water can easily lead to pipeline blockage

and corrosion. Therefore, it is urgent to develop an

efficient, fast and clean treatment process. Through

the application of crude oil viscosity reduction and

dehydration technology, the quality standard of the

crude exportation can be achieved and the

production management target of the oil field can be

me[3,4]t.

In order to study the ability of high frequency

electric field to reduce the viscosity of crude oil and

the dehydration effect of water cut crude oil, high

frequency electric field technology and indoor

experimental method are adopted in this paper. This

research is a new technology which applies high

frequency technology to the gathering and

transportation of crude oil. High frequency

electromagnetic field on crude oil not only has good

viscosity reduction effect, using the technology in

crude oil viscosity reduction transportation, it can

reduce the heat pump stations, costs of gathering

and transportation, protect the environment, improve

product quality and increase economic efficiency.

High frequency electromagnetic field dehydration

equipment small volume, can reduce the probability

of voltage breakdown, less energy consumption.

2. EXPERIMENTAL DEVICES AND

METHODS

In order to reduce adhesion and dehydration, a new

treatment system was designed. The system consists

of high frequency source, high frequency control

system and plate capacitor. The schematic diagram

of the experimental device is shown in Fig. 1.We are

fulling plane-parallel capacitor water cut of crude oil

or crude oil in the experiment, applying high

frequency electromagnetic field on the capacitor,

respectively before and after radiation were

measured the change of viscosity and water ratio of

crude oil, experiment content and steps are shown in

Fig.2.

Fig. 1.A block diagram of the experimental apparatus.

Fig. 2. Experiment content and procedure block diagram.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

3.1 Viscosity Reduction of Crude Oil by

High Frequency Radiation

Changes in viscosity of crude oil samples

S01,S02,S03 and S04 in S oilfield after high-

frequency radiation at 240s,600s, 900s and 1500s

(Table 1) are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 3.

Through the radiation experiment of S oilfield

crude oil, it is shown that the viscosity of crude oil

after high frequency radiation has also been

significantly reduced, that is, the high frequency

radiation crude oil can reduce the viscosity of crude

oil and has the effect of viscosity reduction.At 50 ℃,

the viscosity from 494.4 mPa. S to176.7 mPa. S.At a

certain plate voltage, the decreasing range of

viscosity increases with the extension of radiation

time.

Table 1.high frequency radiation parameter.

Table 2. viscosity of crude oil before and after radiation.

Fig. 3. viscosity-temperature curve of before and after

radiation.

3.2 Dehydration of Crude Oil by High

Frequency Radiation

The changes of water ratio and dehydration rate of

crude oil samples S01,S02,S03 and S04 in S oilfield

after high-frequency radiation at different times

(Table 3) are shown in Table 3, Fig.4 and

Fig5.When the water ratio of crude oil is 15.0% and

the high frequency radiation is 180s, the water

content of crude oil is 0.5%, which meets the

requirement crude exportation in oil field

transportation. The water ratio is within the range of

15%~19%, and there is a trend that the dehydration

rate increases with the radiation time.

Table 3.water ratio and dehydration ratio of crude oil

before and after radiation.

Fig. 4.water ratio of crude oil before and after radiation.

Fig.5. dehydration ratio of crude oil after radiation.

The changes of water ratio and dehydration ratio

of sample S301,S302,S303 and S304 of water-

bearing crude oil in S oilfield after high-frequency

radiation at different times (Table 3) are shown in

Table 4Fig.6 and Fig.7.When the water ratio of

crude oil is 40.5% and 25.0% respectively, and 220s

and 180s respectively radiated by high frequency

radiation, the water content of crude oil is 0.5%,

which meets the requirement of crude exportation.

When the water ratio of crude oil is 40.5%, the

dehydration rate reaches a maximum of 98.7% after

220s of high frequency radiation. Compared with

S302 and S301, S302 and S301, it is obvious that the

radiation time increases to cause dehydration rate

increasing sharply.

Can be seen from the experiment, for different

crude oil dehydration effect of high frequency

difference is very big, for example, for S oilfield

water cut of crude oil, the high frequency radiation

after 180 S, moisture content is reduced from 25% to

0.5%, and for L oilfield, water cut of crude oil, the

high frequency radiation after 180 S, the moisture

content is reduced from 15% to 0.5%.

Table 4.water ratio and dehydration ratio of crude oil

before and after radiation.

Fig.6. dehydration ratio of crude oil after radiation.

Fig.7. dehydration ratio of crude oil after radiation.

4 CONCLUSIONS

1. Through experiment of S oilfield crude oil show

that high frequency radiation can reduce viscosity

of crude oil, That is, high frequency radiation crude

oil has viscosity reduction effect.And viscosity

reduces with an increase in radiation time.

2. For water-cut crude oil, high frequency

radiation has good dehydration effect, while

radiation time increases, dehydration rate increases

sharply. However, for different crude oil, the effect

of high frequency dehydration is very different.

3. High frequency viscosity reduction and

dehydration technology has potential application

value in crude oil gathering and transportation.

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