Oilfield industry defoaming solutions

Petroleum is the general name of crude oil and its processed products.  Crude oil is a mixture of various hydrocarbons with a wide distribution of relative molecular mass and can be gaseous, liquid and solid at room temperature. In the petroleum industry,  there is a problem of foaming in many processes from drilling to refining and processing.

Bubble generation process includes drilling, oil and gas separation, crude oil transportation, delayed coking/refining.

Drilling Foam Source:

The general mud components are: dry soil, barite powder, lignite lignosulfonate, cunning methyl cellulose, etc. In order to suspend soil particles and stone powder in the mud, some surfactants must be contained. When natural gas escapes in the formation, foam proudced in the mud, and the surfactant in the mud has the effect of stabilizing the foam, that makes the foam in the mud tank fail to burst by itself, and circulate back into the well.

Hazards of drilling foam:

The serious foaming also affects the stability of the slurry suspension system due to the excessive amount of surfactant attached to the foam. When there is too much foam, the relative density is decreased, and sometimes the blowout cannot be suppressed.

Oil and gas separation:

In some oil wells, the oil can be self-spraying in the initial stage, while most oil must be pumped with a pumping unit. With the development of the mining process, the underground oil-bearing layer is continuously decompressed. When the pressure is lower than the natural gas saturation pressure, the natural gas will be precipitated in the oil-bearing layer, and the crude oil in the well will become foamy. When the oil pump is working,as the piston rises, the air bubbles expand; as they fall, the air bubbles compress, that seriously affects the efficiency of the pump.

The less bubbles in the crude oil entering the pump chamber, the higher efficiency of the pump and the higher production of the well.

Crude oil is also prone to foam during transportation.

Causes of foaming: 1. Shaking during canning 2. There are some soluble gases 3. There are some chemical residues

The hazards of foam: 1. The foam will lead to inaccurate measurement accuracy 2. The foam will cause the filter to block 3. The foam will cause pump cavitation 4. The foam will cause the volume of crude oil to increase。

Delayed coking/refining

A thermal cracking process.Its main purpose is to convert high carbon residue oil into light oil.The device  used can carry out circulating operation, that is,the heavier fraction in the coking distillate of the heavy oil is used as recycle oil,and it stays in the device for a long time.

Relying on the steam blowing and venting system of the delayed coking unit,it uses the waste heat of venting oil and gas from the coke tower to recycle the water-containing slop oil.The water-containing sewage is injected into the steam blowing and venting pipeline of the coke tower when the coke tower of the coking unit blows steam and feeds water to cool the coke.The water-containing sewage oil is heated by the high-temperature oil and gas from the coke tower,and then the non-condensable gas,light sewage oil,sulfur-containing sewage and heavy sewage oil are separated through the steam blowing and venting system,so that the water-containing sewage oil can be recycled.The technology does not affect the normal operation and product quality of the coking unit,and is not limited by the nature of the slop oil. It can not only treat the water-containing slop oil that is difficult for the refinery to handle, but also reduces the cooling load and energy consumption of the coking unit, which is beneficial to the refinery's energy saving and emission reduction and improving the economic benefits of the refinery.

After atmospheric and vacuum distillation, catalytic cracking and other processing, the tender oil and lubricating oil are extracted,the remaining residual oil contains waxy or asphaltene.It can be used for coke or asphalt,and it is better to use oil field Defoamer to improve product quality.

Selection of defoamer

Drilling: water-based silicone-based

Oil and Gas Separation and Crude Oil (Transportation): Oil-Based Defoamers

Delayed coking: water-based or oil-based

https://www.nvchemical.com/product/Defoamer-for-oilfield-industry.html