Acid in oil emulsion is used in the industry for stimulation purposes. In particular, HCl as the acid phase and diesel as the oil. Emulsifying HCl has numerous benefits over regular HCl. Perhaps the main reason is due to deeper penetration. Apart from that, less corrosion damages are caused since the external phase is hydrocarbon. Several studies showed the success of replacing diesel as an external phase with other hydrocarbon oil, such as crude oil and xylene.
This work utilizes the extra hydrocarbon left unused –or sometimes dumped- from refineries. This unused hydrocarbon is referred to as waste oil. First the chemical composition of waste oil was studied using HPLC, SARA fractionation as well as FTIR. This helped in selecting the proper emulsifier agent for the waste oil. The HCl-waste-oil emulsion was prepared using 15wt% HCl with a ratio of 70:30 of acid-to-oil. Extensive work was done to ensure reproducibility of data. This study was done to experimentally investigate the effects of distinct important variables on thermal stability and apparent viscosity of the HCl-waste-oil emulsion. These variables are; emulsifier concentration, mixing speed and the addition of corrosion inhibitor. All experiments were conducted at a high temperature 120˚C. To assess the quality of the HCl-waste-oil emulsion, droplet size was measured as a function of temperature (up to 100 ˚C).
The results showed that the HCl-waste-oil emulsion is a shear-thinning fluid. Power-law model was applicable seamlessly to all of the apparent viscosity data for all of measured temperatures. The optimum conditions were found to be; 0.5vol% and 600 rpm for emulsifier concentration and mixing speed, respectively. Apart from that, the emulsions prepared with corrosion inhibitor were less stable compared to the ones without it. However, the addition of corrosion inhibitor tended to generate monodispersed emulsion but bigger size droplets for temperatures 25˚C and 50˚C and polydispersed droplets for higher temperatures. Droplet size measurements showed an average size of 1.47 to 3.09 µm. Overall, the lab results showed a promising potential for the HCl-waste-oil emulsion to be used in the field.
This work takes into account; reducing the budget of acidizing job and at the same time environmental concerns. It makes use of the unwanted hydrocarbon from refiners. And, it saves the environment by using the waste oil instead of dumping it.
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