Turbiscan for petroleum applications

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Turbiscan for petroleum applications
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Contents

• Oil stability
• Crude oil emulsion
• Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)
• The Turbiscan technology
• Crude oil demulsification
• ASTM D7061 for HFO stability

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Crude oil emulsion

• Water crude emulsion
• Advantages
• Easier to extract
• Easier to transport
• Drawbacks
• Problems in refinery

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Crude oil emulsion

• Problem separate water from the crude oil
• Solution use demulsifier molecules (polymeric
  surfactant)
• Constraints use of chemical (type
  concentration)
• Environmental reasons
• Need test the efficiency of the additives
  (demulsifiers)

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Heavy Fuel stability
Crude oil and refining
HFO
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Heavy Fuel stability
Why stability is getting worse ?

• Crude oil quality
• Worst quality
• Large variation in composition
• Blending from various origins
• Refinery processes
• Higher demand on light products (gasoline,
  diesel)
• More efficient (hydrocraking, visbreaking)

• HFO composition more critical

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Heavy Fuel stability
Stability issues

• Asphaltenes precipitation
• Change in fuel composition (solubility issues
  during blending)
• Asphaltenes not dispersed anymore in fuel
  because of aging
• Practical issues
• Blockage of pipes, storage tank
• Fouling in refineries
• Plugging of filters and heat exchanger
• Combustion issues

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Heavy Fuel stability
What are the solutions ?

• Determine the stability of the oil
• Spot test
• Hot filtration
• P-value
• Use asphaltenes dispersant
• Find the right additive
• Optimise the amount of additive

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Heavy Fuel stability
Current tests methods

• Spot test
• Subjective
• Not accurate
• Hot filtration
• Does not actually measure stability
• P-value
• Time consuming
• Not appropriate for dispersant

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Oil stability
Need for an accurate, fast and objective
technique to measure the stability of oils
Turbiscan technology
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Turbiscan Technology
Acquisition of the - Transmitted flux
(T) and - Backscattered flux (BS)
Analysis of diluted to concentrated products
1 Acquisition every 40 µm
High vertical resolution
One scan lasts 20 seconds
Measurement of fast destabilisations
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Turbiscan Technology
Principle of measurement
Multi scans
One scan
Acquisition time of each profile
Backscattering ()
Height (mm)
Height (mm)
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Turbiscan Technology
Particle size variation
Particle migration
Coalescence or flocculation
Sedimentation or creaming
t0 min
t0 min
t15 min
t15 min
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Contents

• Oil stability
• Crude oil emulsion
• Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)
• The Turbiscan technology
• Crude oil demulsification
• ASTM D7061 for HFO stability

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Crude oil demulsification
French Institute of Petroleum (IFP) study

• Methodology
• Preparation of stable emulsions
• Selection of chemical families
• Bottle Tests measurements
• Turbiscan measurements
• Selection of the most efficient chemical family
• Characterization of silicone performance

C. Dalmazzone, C. Noïk, Development of New
green Demulsifiers for Oil Production ,
SPE65041
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Crude oil demulsification
Bottle tests

• Qualitative study
• First evaluation of separation ability of
  different surfactants
• Enables a large screening to select best family
  of additives
• Criteria
• 80 of separated water
• Thin layer water/oil interface
• Clear separated water
• Test duration 12 hours

C. Dalmazzone, C. Noïk, Development of New
green Demulsifiers for Oil Production ,
SPE65041
17
Crude oil demulsification
Turbiscan

• Qualitative Quantitative study
• Selection of the best additive
• Optimization of the additive concentration
• Criteria
• width of T peak height of separated water
• height of T peak Limpidity of separated water

C. Dalmazzone, C. Noïk, Development of New
green Demulsifiers for Oil Production ,
SPE65041
18
Crude oil demulsification
Turbiscan
Limpidity (clarity)
height
w
o
C. Dalmazzone, C. Noïk, Development of New
green Demulsifiers for Oil Production ,
SPE65041
19
Crude oil demulsification
Turbiscan
 Separation rate  gt T f(time)
300 ppm is the best concentration
C. Dalmazzone, C. Noïk, Development of New
green Demulsifiers for Oil Production ,
SPE65041
20
Crude oil demulsification
Turbiscan
Phase separation mechanisms

• Analysis of the Backscattering profiles
• Formation of a dense packed zone
• Local variation at the bottom Sediment layer
• Decrease of the BS at the middle Coalescence

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Crude oil demulsification
Turbiscan

• Complementary technique to bottle tests
• Objective repeatable data
• Measurement of separation rate
• Measure of the water limpidity rate
• Detection of the dense packed zone

• To determine the best surfactant at the optimal
  concentration

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Contents

• Oil stability
• Crude oil emulsion
• Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)
• The Turbiscan technology
• Crude oil demulsification
• ASTM D7061 for HFO stability

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ASTM D7061
Method description
HFO toluene
No calibration
Stable ? Unstable?
Dilution of oil in heptane
15 mins analysis
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ASTM D7061
Method description

• Step 1-a Dilution of HFO in toluene

• To disperse all potentially flocculated
  asphaltenes
• To achieve comparable transmission level,
  dilution rate depends of HFO grade

• Contact for 1 to 3 hours to achieve reproducible
  data

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ASTM D7061
Method description

• Step 1-b Addition of HFOtoluene with heptane to
  flocculate the asphaltenes

2 mL of HFO toluene
23 mL of heptane
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ASTM D7061
Method description

• Step 2 15 minutes analysis with the Turbiscan
  Heavy Fuel

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ASTM D7061
Method description

• Step 3 Automatic result calculation

0ltSlt5 High stability reserve No
flocculation 5ltSlt10 Medium stability reserve
flocculation if oil exposed to worse
conditions Sgt10 Low stability reserve Easy
flocculation
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ASTM D7061
What is the separability number?
Transmission ()
Transmission ()
Height (mm)
Height (mm)
Separability number Standard Deviation
T mean value ()
Time (min)
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ASTM D7061
What is the separability number?
If HFO unstable
Flocculation and sedimentation of asphaltenes
Important variation of transmission vs time
High standard deviation
S gt 10
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ASTM D7061
Stabilisation of unstable HFO
Addition of dispersant
unstable
stable
? Quick monitoring of dispersant efficiency and
dosing
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ASTM D7061
Simulation of Oil Storage in a tank

• HFO additives
• TC 120C
• Analysis every 24 hours

Oil sample AFTER 1 WEEK STORAGE

• S1 Stabilizer
• S2 Stabiliszer
• SC1 Stabilizer combustion catalyst

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ASTM D7061
Turbiscan test method is

• Objective
• Reliable
• Repeatable
• Fast
• Easy to operate
• Transportable

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Conclusion

• The Turbiscan is
• a flexible instrument (many applications)
• Easy technique
• Quick analysis
• Quantitative and qualitative

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Conclusion

• Other applications of Turbiscan in oil
  industry
• Drilling fluids
• Lubricant
• Bitumen emulsion