The Effect of Potato Starch and CTAB Surfactant on Viscosity and Drag Reduction for Iraqi Crude Oil
Abstract
The viscosity considered an impact function for crude oil during pipeline transportation, hence the viscosity behavior of crude oil with different concentrations of potato starch and CTAB at different temperatures (25-45oC) was studied. Different concentrations of (500-2000 ppm) potato starch and (100-500ppm) CTAB used to reduce flow resistance in a drag reduction system at various operating conditions of crude oil flow rate (20-50 liters/min) and different pipe diameters (0.5-1 inch). The results indicated that both additives reduce the viscosity and the maximum 56% achieved by CTAB. The drag reduction percentage increased with additives concentration increase, and the maximum drag reduction was 44% and 38% obtained for 500 ppm CTAB surfactant and 2000 ppm potato starch respectively at 50 liters/min. The results indicated that the highest drag reduction achieved with a large pipe diameter of 1inch.
