Systematic Study of Temperature and Different Types of Mixing in Paraffin Deposition Test Methods

Paraffin fouling deposition is a common issue in oil production that leads to constrictions within the system wherever the system temperature drops below the wax appearance temperature (WAT). Chemical mitigation of these issues often relies on various laboratory equipment for product selection, but often the test conditions chosen are not representative of the field; therefore, the resulting deposit generated may give misleading results. In this article, our aim is to investigate how the use of different laboratory techniques can be utilized to generate a field-representative wax deposit. Our study includes the traditional cold finger (CF) apparatus, the coaxial shear cold finger (CSCF), and the dynamic paraffin deposition cell (DPDC), a test method developed in house. The pieces of equipment use similar temperature-driven deposit formation to measure fouling but with very different mixing conditions. The study of paraffin deposition at narrow temperature gradients with these techniques showed similar trends for deposit weight when compared to the fouling factor obtained using a common oil and the Para-window technique presented in a previous study. Significantly, it was observed that for all of the laboratory techniques used, different sample homogenization/mixing mechanisms did not affect the carbon chain distribution of the most insoluble and problematic high-molecular-weight wax (≥n-C₃₅) but did affect the shorter chain composition (i.e., those that are most prevalent in the parent crude oil). The results confirm that temperature is the main driver dictating the nature of the most field-representative deposit characteristics using the laboratory test systems available. This presents the opportunity to gain better insights into paraffin deposition in the laboratory and prepares us to develop better screening capabilities in order to meet current and future paraffin challenges faced in the field.