Investigation of oil viscosity modelling for non-isothermal transportation

As the global energy demand is growing, all hydrocarbon resources, particularly heavy and extra-heavy crude oil, need to be used. However, the decline in light crude oil reserves makes it attractive to use heavy and extra-heavy oil to meet energy requirements due to recoverable oil capacity. Despite the importance and high volumes of heavy crude oil reserves, development, production and refining are difficult due to its physico-chemical properties, mainly its high density and viscosity, low API gravity and high hydrocarbon content Heavy crude (HO) and extra-heavy crude (EHO) crude oils usually have a large percentage of heavy components such as resins and asphalt which reduce API gravity. In order to improve the transport of heavy crude oil to the surface, the conventional techniques used are heat pipes and pumping stations, dilution with less viscous solvents, emulsification and reduction of friction (annular flow). Such techniques, however, are expensive mainly because of the high raw material usage, heating of long tube lengths and additional processes for transporting crude oil. The changes in temperature across the line cause different oil properties changes and the system energy eventually changes. The study of oil transport under non-isothermal conditions underlines the significance of the change in properties such as viscosity and flow regimes in many environmental conditions, those properties are crucial and have triggered changes in the transport approach. Laboratory measurement for heavy crude oil temperature ranges are 25 °C to 75 °C. The main purposes to analyses temperature below 25 °C for heavy oil viscosity until pour point. It used different model for prediction of viscosity of crude oil at lower temperature. Moreover, Light crude oil at different fraction boiling range, olive oil and water it used in order to choose best model for prediction. Using RheoStress RS100 from Haake, rheological properties of heavy crude oil have been studied.