| Abstract: | In the Arctic environment, the fluid temperature in the pipeline can drop below the freezing point of water, which causes wax and ice to form on the pipeline surface. Solid formation on the pipeline surface can lead to flow assurance and process safety issues, such as blockage of the pipeline, pipeline component failure, and release of hazardous liquid. Remediating the plugging requires a shutdown of pipeline operation, which incurs tremendous cost and delays the entire production system. In order to prevent blockage, the pigging operation can be used to remove the deposits on the pipeline surface on a regular interval. Ice and wax depositions in the pipeline are a slow process. However, if the deposition grows too thick, pipeline blockage can still occur after pigging operation. So, ice and wax deposition rates are required to be estimated accurately. This paper investigates ice and wax deposition rates in a 90,000 m pipeline. A fundamental model for both ice and wax deposition is proposed using the first principles of heat and mass transfer. |
