Determination of Safe Pumping Temperature for Waxy Crude Pipelines

Author(s):  
Jinjun Zhang ◽  
Jianlin Ding ◽  
Kang Xu ◽  
Huajun Fan

Flow risk of a hot waxy crude pipeline mainly comes from restart failure, i.e. oil gelation resulted from prolonged pipeline shutdown, and unstable operation at low flow rate. Once the unstable operation happens, the friction loss of the pipeline increases with decreasing flow rate and finally flow may cease if treated improperly. To avoid these flow risks, the pumping temperature of the crude is generally required to be kept above a minimum allowable temperature, and conventionally the pour point temperature is taken. This practice is effective but quite rough. Obviously, to control the inlet temperature of a heating station at the pour point temperature implies different safety margin for winter and summer operation. For large throughput hot oil pipelines, reduction of the heating temperature even by a little bit may save a great amount of fuel. Therefore, how to save fuel while ensuring safe operation has been a valuable topic for long time. On the other hand, many factors impacting the flow safety are stochastic and with uncertainty, so analysis without considering this feature can hardly yield convincible results, though this has been the common case for many years. In this paper, by taking the stochastic feature into account, a Stable Operation Index (SOI) and a Pipeline Restartability Index (PRI) were proposed to assess the flow safety of a pipeline concerning the low-flowrate stable operation and restartability after shutdown. Combining these two indexes, a Pipeline Flow Safety Index (PFSI) was adopted to assess the flow risks of hot waxy crude pipelines. On this basis a new approach to quantitatively determining the safe pumping temperature was developed and illustrated by a case study. Encouraging results show that this new approach has the potential to replace the simple rule of pour point as a guide to determining the safe pumping temperature of waxy crude pipelines.

Author(s):  
Jun Chen ◽  
Jinjun Zhang ◽  
Hongying Li

Waxy crudes are generally pipelined by means of heating. In general, the friction loss of a pipeline decreases with decreasing flow rate. This is the case of isothermal pipeline. However, a hot oil pipeline operated at low flow rate might show a contrary case, i.e. friction-loss increases with decreasing flow rate. This is an unstable operation state and may result in disastrous consequence of flow ceasing if tackled improperly. For a waxy crude pipeline, this may also be exaggerated by the non-Newtonian flow characteristics at temperatures near the pour point. That is to say, there may exist a critical flow rate for pipelines transporting heated waxy crude, and in order to ensure safe operation, the flow rate of a pipeline transporting hot oil should be no less than this critical flow rate. Based on theoretical analysis and can study, the hydraulic characteristics of pipelines transporting hot waxy crudes was investigated, and an empirical model was developed correlating the critical flow rate QC and the pipelining parameters, such as the average overall heat transfer coefficient, the ground temperature, the heating temperature, etc. Another relationship was found between TZC, the outlet temperature of the pipeline corresponding to the critical flow rate, and the critical flow rate. This TZC is also the lowest pipeline outlet temperature that ensures the normal pipelining operation state. Case study on a 720mm O.D. pipeline transporting heated Daqing waxy crude with a pour point of 36 °C showed that the TZC was in a range of 31∼34.2°C.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Ragab A. A. ◽  
M. A. Sayed ◽  
Sameh A. Elbanna ◽  
Eslam Hafez ◽  
M. Roushdi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Steven J. Greenberg ◽  
Neil K. McDougald ◽  
Leonel O. Arellano

ALZETA Corporation has developed surface-stabilized fuel injectors for use with lean premixed combustors which provide extended turndown and ultra-low NOx emission performance. These injectors use a patented technique to form interacting high-flow and low-flow flame zones immediately above a selectively-perforated porous metal surface. This allows stable operation at low reaction temperatures. This technology has been given the product name nanoSTAR™. Previous work involved the development of nanoSTAR technology from the proof-of-concept stage to prototype testing. Rig testing of single injectors and of two injectors simulating a sector of an annular combustion liner have been completed for pressure ratios up to 17 and combustion air inlet temperatures up to 700 K (800°F). This paper presents results from the first ever full-scale demonstration of surface-stabilized fuel injectors. An annular combustion liner, fitted with twelve nanoSTAR injectors was successfully tested up to a pressure ratio of 12 and combustion air inlet temperature of 700 K (800°F). NOx emissions were 2 ppm with CO emissions of 3 ppm both corrected to 15% O2. The combustion system exhibited excellent temperature uniformity around the annular combustor outlet with a maximum pattern factor of 0.16 and engine-appropriate radial profiles.


Author(s):  
Azzam S. Salman ◽  
Jamil A. Khan

An experimental study was conducted in a closed loop spray cooling system working with deionized water as a cooling medium, to investigate the effects of surface modification on the spray cooling heat transfer enhancement in the single-phase region. Plain copper surface with diameter 1.5 cm and an enhanced surface with circular grooves were tested under different operating conditions. The volumetric flow rate of the coolant ranged from 115 mL/min to 177 mL/min., and the water inlet temperature was kept between 21–23 °C. Also, the distances between the nozzle and the target surface were varied at 8, 10, and 12 mm respectively. The results show that the distance between the nozzle and the target surface did not have a significant effect on the heat transfer performance for the low flow rates, while it has a slight effect on high flow rates for both surfaces. Also, increasing the liquid volumetric flow rate increases the amount of heat removed, and the heat transfer coefficient for both surfaces. Moreover, the maximum enhancement ratios achieved were 23.4% and 31% with volumetric flow rates of 153 mL/min, and 177 mL/min respectively.


1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (11) ◽  
pp. 2903-2918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Horák ◽  
Zina Valášková ◽  
František Jiráček

Algorithms have been presented, analyzed and experimentally tested to stabilize the reaction temperature at constant inlet temperature and composition of the feed by controlled dispensing of the catalyst. The information for the control element is the course of the reaction temperature. If the temperature of the reaction mixture is below the set point, the catalyst is being fed into the reactor at a constant rate. If the reaction temperature is higher the catalyst dispenser is blocked; dispensing of the catalyst is not resumed until the set point temperature has been reached again. The amount of catalyst added is a function of the duration of the switching cycle. The effect has been discussed of the form of this function on the course of the switching cycle. The results have been tested experimentally on a laboratory reactor controlled in an unstable steady state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042199886
Author(s):  
Wenzhe Kang ◽  
Lingjiu Zhou ◽  
Dianhai Liu ◽  
Zhengwei Wang

Previous researches has shown that inlet backflow may occur in a centrifugal pump when running at low-flow-rate conditions and have nonnegligible effects on cavitation behaviors (e.g. mass flow gain factor) and cavitation stability (e.g. cavitation surge). To analyze the influences of backflow in impeller inlet, comparative studies of cavitating flows are carried out for two typical centrifugal pumps. A series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out for the cavitating flows in two pumps, based on the RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Naiver-Stokes) solver with the turbulence model of k- ω shear stress transport and homogeneous multiphase model. The cavity volume in Pump A (with less reversed flow in impeller inlet) decreases with the decreasing of flow rate, while the cavity volume in Pump B (with obvious inlet backflow) reach the minimum values at δ = 0.1285 and then increase as the flow rate decreases. For Pump A, the mass flow gain factors are negative and the absolute values increase with the decrease of cavitation number for all calculation conditions. For Pump B, the mass flow gain factors are negative for most conditions but positive for some conditions with low flow rate coefficients and low cavitation numbers, reaching the minimum value at condition of σ = 0.151 for most cases. The development of backflow in impeller inlet is found to be the essential reason for the great differences. For Pump B, the strong shearing between backflow and main flow lead to the cavitation in inlet tube. The cavity volume in the impeller decreases while that in the inlet tube increases with the decreasing of flow rate, which make the total cavity volume reaches the minimum value at δ = 0.1285 and then the mass flow gain factor become positive. Through the transient calculations for cavitating flows in two pumps, low-frequency fluctuations of pressure and flow rate are found in Pump B at some off-designed conditions (e.g. δ = 0.107, σ = 0.195). The relations among inlet pressure, inlet flow rate, cavity volume, and backflow are analyzed in detail to understand the periodic evolution of low-frequency fluctuations. Backflow is found to be the main reason which cause the positive value of mass flow gain factor at low-flow-rate conditions. Through the transient simulations of cavitating flow, backflow is considered as an important aspect closely related to the hydraulic stability of cavitating pumping system.


ORL ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Jingjing Liu ◽  
Tengfang Chen ◽  
Zhenggang Lv ◽  
Dezhong Wu

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> In China, nasal cannula oxygen therapy is typically humidified. However, it is difficult to decide whether to suspend nasal cannula oxygen inhalation after the nosebleed has temporarily stopped. Therefore, we conducted a preliminary investigation on whether the use of humidified nasal cannulas in our hospital increases the incidence of epistaxis. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We conducted a survey of 176,058 inpatients in our hospital and other city branches of our hospital over the past 3 years and obtained information concerning their use of humidified nasal cannulas for oxygen inhalation, nonhumidified nasal cannulas, anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs, and oxygen inhalation flow rates. This information was compared with the data collected at consultation for epistaxis during these 3 years. <b><i>Results:</i></b> No significant difference was found between inpatients with humidified nasal cannulas and those without nasal cannula oxygen therapy in the incidence of consultations due to epistaxis (χ<sup>2</sup> = 1.007, <i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). The same trend was observed among hospitalized patients using anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs (χ<sup>2</sup> = 2.082, <i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). Among the patients with an inhaled oxygen flow rate ≥5 L/min, the incidence of ear-nose-throat (ENT) consultations due to epistaxis was 0. No statistically significant difference was found between inpatients with a humidified oxygen inhalation flow rate &#x3c;5 L/min and those without nasal cannula oxygen therapy in the incidence of ENT consultations due to epistaxis (χ<sup>2</sup> = 0.838, <i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). A statistically significant difference was observed in the incidence of ENT consultations due to epistaxis between the low-flow nonhumidified nasal cannula and nonnasal cannula oxygen inhalation groups (χ<sup>2</sup> = 18.428, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001). The same trend was observed between the 2 groups of low-flow humidified and low-flow nonhumidified nasal cannula oxygen inhalation (χ<sup>2</sup> = 26.194, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001). <b><i>Discussion/Conclusion:</i></b> Neither high-flow humidified nasal cannula oxygen inhalation nor low-flow humidified nasal cannula oxygen inhalation will increase the incidence of recurrent or serious epistaxis complications; the same trend was observed for patients who use anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs. Humidification during low-flow nasal cannula oxygen inhalation can prevent severe and repeated epistaxis to a certain extent.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document