Development of a system for automated control of oil transportation in the Arctic region to prevent the formation of paraffin deposits in pipelines

Abstract

The paper introduces a unique methodology of preventing and controlling the formation of paraffin deposits in oil pipelines, which is a matter of urgency in regions with negative temperatures, including the Arctic regions. The paper presents the configuration and specific parameters of the developed measuring unit. The proposed measuring unit is capable of detecting the formation of a paraffin layer during its early stages and predicting its composition. Simultaneous use of two radioisotope sensors allows increasing the performance capabilities of the measuring unit, namely to detect the formation of a paraffin layer in the early stages and to issue a signal to amplify the control signal to control the oil pipeline paraffinisation. In addition, the use of a radioisotope unit instead of a single sensor will increase the accuracy of component-wise flow rate measurement, by making an allowance for paraffin deposits formation. The use of customized information processing algorithms also allows determining oil viscosity with high accuracy. The paper deals with an optimization of a system for automated control of a promising method of electric heating via the skin-cables, wherein safety factors of up to 36% are currently used, i.e. in most cases, 1/3 excess electric power is generated. The safety of using the radioisotope measuring technique is proven.