Análise da redução de perda de carga e do consumo energético para bombeamento de óleos pesados em tubulações.

Abstract

This paper makes the comparison between models of pressure drop during heavy oil flow. Set up an analytical model from real data operation, where it is compared to Brauner and Arney models and experimental data found in literature. In spite of current crisis involving oil industry, it has grown significantly in face of its abundance in the country. This industry offers various productive processes and elements ranging from production to refining and distribution for consumer units. One of this is pumps that are responsible for transporting crude oil to be processed into end products available to consumers. By the foregoing, it is evident the need for advanced studies on energy consumption dependence of pumps for heavy oils, physicochemical properties of fluids involved and the contribution of water used as a vehicle for transport of such oil. Seeking to meet this demand and from this idea, present work was developed to identify theoretical models and to search empirical results with ultimate goal of evaluating water optimal amount in a binary liquid water-heavy oil mixture for potiguar basin fields. Data were obtained from literature surveys, meetings and technical visits on a Petrobras SA workstation, located in Rio Grande do Norte state. Pressure reduction factor, pumping power, energy consumption and water production reuse results are presented and discussed for comparison between models. It was found that Brauner model was one most suited to field actual profile, with a small difference for very poor or very rich mixtures in oil.