Adsorption of Polymeric Additives Based on Vinyl Acetate Copolymers as Wax Dispersant and Its Relevance to Polymer Crystallization Mechanisms

Abstract

The present work has main target to study the effect of additives molecular weight and composition on the flow characteristics of wax crude oil at low temperature below pour point temperature. In this respect, maleic anhydride ester-co-vinyl acetate copolymers with varied monomers feed ratios and different alkyl ester lengths, namely, dodecyl, stearyl, and behenyl alkyl chains, were prepared. These polymeric materials were characterized by FTIR, 1HNMR, and GPC. The performance of these additives as pour point depressants and flow improver for Egyptian waxy crude oil was evaluated through measurements of pour point and rheological parameters (viscosity and yield stress). It was observed that stearyl maleate-vinyl acetate copolymer with 1 : 2 feed ratio shows the best efficiency as pour point depressant even at low concentration while octadecyl maleate-vinyl acetate copolymers with 2 : 1 feed ratio are effective as flow improver.