Resource utilization of expired progesterone medicines as flow improver for waxy crude oils

At present, the treatment of expired medicines mainly involves burning, which means waste of resources and carbon dioxide emissions, and it does not comply with the concept of resource recycling. In this study, in order to explore the resource utilization pathways of expired medicines, progesterone drugs were evaluated as crude oil flow improvers as an example. The results shows that progesterone injection (PI) and progesterone capsule (PC) both act as viscosity reducer and pour point depressant in different crude oil, and 500 ppm PI and 300 ppm PC are the best dosage respectively. 500 ppm PI can reduce the viscosity of HN oil sample by 60.40%, and depress the pour point by 8.5 °C. 300 ppm PC can reduce the viscosity of HN oil by 54.7%, and depress the pour point by 10.9 °C. Furthermore, through DSC and wax crystal morphology analysis, the possible mechanism of this expired medicine as crude oil flow improver was further discussed. Finally, considering the costs of concentration, transportation, treatment, processing and other links, the possible cost of crude oil flow improver was summed up, and its market feasibility was analyzed. This study provides a reference case for the resource utilization of expired medicines.