The influence of magnetic treatment, iron oxides and oxyhydrates on the rheological properties of oil

Currently, the production of highly paraffinic and highly viscous crude oils, characterized by high pour points and abnormally high viscosity, is increasing. During production, transportation, and storage, as temperatures decrease, these oils significantly deteriorate their structural and rheological properties, leading to equipment wear, additional material costs, and environmental degradation at the field and during oil transportation through pipelines. The use of various types of physical fields to influence oil-containing systems to alter their properties is of great interest to researchers, as it allows for the structure to be restructured in the desired direction, taking into account individual characteristics and selecting the correct type of action. For example, a magnetic field can reduce the viscosity-temperature properties of crude oils due to the rupture of weak intermolecular or hydrogen bonds in molecular complexes (clusters). This study examined the effects of a magnetic field and 0.01% wt. Iron oxyhydrates were added to two highly paraffinic crude oils differing in resin, asphaltene, and paraffinic hydrocarbon content to improve their structural and rheological properties. The possibility of using crystalline ferromagnetic iron oxide Fe2O3 as additives, as well as iron oxyhydrate, which has paramagnetic properties and was obtained by calcining mineral sediment from the purification of artesian water from a settling pond at the Tomsk Akademgorodok water intake at 250°C, was studied. The water purification sediment has a light-brown gel-like consistency when wet, and hardens upon drying, but is easily ground into a fine powder. A study of the effect of iron oxyhydrate additives on the structural and rheological properties of highly paraffinic crude oils of varying compositions, followed by magnetic treatment, showed that a magnetic field only reduces the parameters characterizing the behavior of the oil at rest (yield strength and static viscosity). The addition of 0.01% by weight of paramagnetic iron to oil followed by magnetic treatment does not lead to significant changes in the viscosity-temperature and energy characteristics, while magnetic field treatment of oil containing ferromagnetic iron oxide additives results in a significant increase in viscosity. The results presented in this study do not confirm previous conclusions in the literature that interaction of ferromagnetic particles with a magnetic field leads to the destruction of colloidal aggregates existing in the oil, which affect the viscosity-temperature characteristics of the extracted oil. Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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