Development of Novel Terpolymes and Evaluating Their Performance as Pour Point Depressants and Paraffin Inhibitors for Waxy Crude Oil

Elbanna, Sameh A.; Abd El Rhman, Abdellatief M. M.; Al-Hussaini, Ayman S.; Khalil, Salah A.

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2022.120528.5414

Development of Novel Terpolymes and Evaluating Their Performance as Pour Point Depressants and Paraffin Inhibitors for Waxy Crude Oil

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Processes Development Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt

² Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo 11727, Egypt

³ Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said City, Egypt

10.21608/ejchem.2022.120528.5414

Abstract

In this work, novel styrene-based terpolymer styrene hexadecyl acrylate maleic anhydride was synthesized and modified via esterification and imidation reactions through the free radical polymerization technique. The synthesized terpolymers were characterized by FTIR, 1H-NMR, and GPC techniques. Also, their impact as pour point depressants and paraffin inhibitors for the Egyptian waxy crude oil were assessed using different concentrations (50-200 ppm). The results showed that all the synthesized additives have great impacts on depressing the pour point temperature and hindering the wax deposits formation. The best performance was achieved by injecting 200 ppm of styrene hexadecyl acrylate maleic anhydride imide which was able to depress the pour point from 27 °C to 9 °C and achieve a paraffin inhibition of 90%. Thus, the synthesized terpolymers can be considered as promising and applicable additives for depressing the pour point and inhibiting the paraffinic precipitates for the waxy crude oil.

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