Pressure drop and water holdup of Malaysian crude oil and water two-phase flow in pipes

Abstract

Understanding the pressure drop and water holdup of crude oil-water flow in a pipe is crucial to many engineering applications. Free water in contact with the pipes' wall can cause erosion or corrosion problems. An experimental research was conducted at the Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation Institute for Oil and Gas, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to study the pressure drop and water holdup of the Malaysian waxy crude oil-water flowing in a closed-loop system at ambient condition through a 5.08 cm ID stainless steel horizontal pipeline. In the research work, water cuts were varied from 0 - 90% with mixture velocities ranging from 0.1 - 0.8 m/s. The research works comprised fluid characterization, pressure drop, and liquid holdup measurement.The investigations proved that pressure drop increased with flow rates, while the water holdup was found to have decreased slightly at higher water cuts due to the presence of emulsion in the crude oil - a challenge when using a waxy crude oil in a two phase flow system. The experimental results can be used as a platform to understand better a more complex case of liquid-liquid two phase flow.