Development of oxazolidines derived from polyiso butylene succinimides as multifunctional stabilizers of asphaltenes in oil industry

Violeta Y. Mena-Cervantes, Raúl Hernández-Altamirano, Eduardo Buenrostro-González, Hiram I. Beltrán, Luis S. Zamudio-Rivera

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

The aim of the research presented herein was to develop novel multifunctional stabilizers of asphaltenes (Asph) for the control of fouling in different stages of petroleum industry. Novel stabilizers were obtained from the reaction between polyisobutenyl succinic anhydride (PIBSA ), 2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethanol (AEAE) and an R-substituted aldehyde, resulting in three 2-R-(poly isobutylenesuccinimidyl)oxazolidines as prototypes of multifunctional Asph stabilizers, where R is -H (P1), -C5H 11 (P2) or -ortho(OH)C6H4 (P3). Compounds P1-3 were characterized by FTIR, 1H, 13C and 2D NMR spectroscopies, and assessed in four different types of evaluations: (i) Asph dispersion by UV-vis, (ii) displacement of Asph onset precipitation, at ambient conditions, (iii) inhibition of electric field induced deposition of Asph, and (iv) displacement of Asph onset precipitation, at reservoir conditions. All the latter individual efficiencies were included in a multifunctional development factor (MDF) resulted in 0.626 for P1, 0.326 for P2, and 0.679 for P3, where the higher value corresponded to the highest efficiency. For comparison purposes, two commercial stabilizers of Asph were also evaluated, resulting in MDF of 0.012 and 0.162, being P1-3 clearly better multifunctional chemicals. Best novel prototype was selected for industrial evaluation by taking into account technical and economic criteria, thus P1 compound was chosen as active component of DAIM chemical and was successfully assessed at industrial scale in a production well of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) to control Asph fouling. The continuous injection of DAIM produced important benefits to the oil well productivity, such as the decrease of the frequency of cleaning operations from 11 to 4 in a one-year evaluation period and the reduction of production rate decay from -1.48 to -0.032 m3/day, ca. 46 times less in comparison when the well was operated without Asph stabilizer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)293-301
Number of pages9
JournalFuel
Volume110
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Asphaltene inhibition
  • Fouling
  • Heavy organics
  • Petroleum
  • Polyisobutylene succinimide

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development of oxazolidines derived from polyiso butylene succinimides as multifunctional stabilizers of asphaltenes in oil industry'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this