(83b) Settling and Re-Entrainment of Wax Particles in Near Gelling Systems

Wax precipitation and settling is one of the important operational problem in offshore production flow lines during long shutdown especially in near gelling systems. If the settled wax bed does not re-entrain during startup, the fluid is forced to flow in smaller cross-sectional area resulting in several risks, including increased frictional pressure losses, decreased production, and increased risk of equipment failure. Fundamental understanding of the wax settling and re entrainment processes is required to design proper remediation/ prevention strategy. In this work, the settling and re-entrainment phenomena of selected model oil was studied using specially designed transparent flow loop section. Moreover, the important properties of settled wax particles and its influence on re entrainment was investigated.