wax and asphaltene Separated in Separator

[MIANCH]

Hi all,
in my production facility some wells have tendency to produce wax and asphaltene,we are facing problem everyday chocking in water outlet line. on inspecting the separator we found that lumps of wax/ asphaltenes are deposited in water boot and oil section side. we don't have slug catcher or other treatment type before separator. a photo of collected material is attached for visual inspection.
Hope some of the forum member have exeprience to deal with such type of problems.
Thanks
MIANCH

 

[EmmanuelTop]

Asphaltenes start to precipitate rapidly below a certain temperature, depending on actual content/composition. Precipitation can also be induced by injection of EOR or Well stimulation chemicals.

There is no simple solution to the problem. I would suggest you make proper laboratory testing and confirm the boundaries/envelope of asphaltene precipitation conditions. Then see if anything of the following can apply:

1- Maintain operating conditions outside of the precipitation envelope - this could be e.g. rising the flowing temperature,
2- Injection of chemicals/inhibitors, that would slow down the process of deposition.

Dejan IVANOVIC
Process Engineer, MSChE

 

[MIANCH]

DJ
Sample is sent for analysis and wax inhibitor injection is going on, DJ, you know that chemicals treatment release problem at one point and give you problem at other points.
MINCH

 

[georgeverghese]

Chemical injection to inhibit wax / asphaltenes dropout may be one solution, another more dependable solution ( most likely more expensive also ) would be to heat up the crude mix upstream of this separator to keep the crude above cloud point.