Shear driven crude oil wax deposition evaluation

Comprehensive testing of waxy crude oil solid deposition using a recently developed device based on Taylor–Couette flow under both live (single-phase) and stock tank conditions was performed. The analysis included wax solid deposition as a function of time (kinetics), shear (dynamics), temperature (heat transfer) and pressure. The study revealed good deposit reproducibility under consistent test conditions. Moreover, collected experimental deposition results from the Taylor–Couette flow device demonstrated proper deposition trends and profiles as a function of the selected variables. In particular, the results confirmed that the deposition increases with the increase of heat transfer and kinetics, and deceases with an increase of shear at the wall.