000 02215nab a2200205 4500
005 20260520000839.0
008 260224s2009 xxu
245 0 0 _aRole of polydispersity and cocrystallization on the gelation of long-chained n-alkanes in solution
260 _a
_b
_cnov./dic. 2009
270 _a09/06/2010 ; 09/06/2010
300 _a11 p. ; 5947-5957
520 _aTranscripción del resumen del autor. The deposition of wax on subsea oil pipelines is one of the major economic concerns that currently faces the petroleum industry. These deposits are a wax-oil gel, where solid wax crystals form a volume-spanning network while trapping liquid crude oil. Although significant research on an industrial and academic level has been dedicated to developing proper additives to weaken or break the deposit, little work has been devoted to understanding how the composition of the oil itself affects the formation of this wax-oil gel. This work focuses on the gelation characteristics of long-chained n-alkanes (primary component of wax deposits) in a short-chained n-alkane solvent. Adding other crystallizable n-alkanes can greatly inhibit the ability of a gel to form, even though the amount of wax present has been increased. Cocrystallization inhibits the formation of a gel by developing weaknesses in the crystal structure as a result of accommodating the shorter n-alkane into the crystal structure of the longer n-alkane. Even if the components are unable to cocrystallize, gel inhibition can occur when the shorter n-alkane associates with the longer n-alkane and prevents the longer n-alkanes from interacting with one another. However, these effects cannot be seen until a sufficient amount of the shorter n-alkane has been added, at which point the gelation temperature drops significantly. These conclusions have been validated using cross-polarized microscopy. Further work has also investigated the effect of even and odd carbon numbers on the gelation characteristics.
581 _a6
773 0 _tEnergy & fuels
_g23
942 _cARTICULO
100 1 _aSenra, Michael
_942382
100 1 _aScholand, Tim
_942383
100 1 _aMaxey, Chrissy
_942384
999 _c170838
_d170838