Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Heavy crude oil viscosity reduction and rheology for pipeline transportation
Shadi W. Hasan a, Mamdouh T. Ghannam b,*, Nabil Esmail a
a
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
b
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Different methods of reducing the viscosity of heavy crude oil to enhance the flow properties were inves-
Received 3 December 2008 tigated. Experimental measurements were conducted using RheoStress RS100 from Haake. Several fac-
Received in revised form 25 May 2009 tors such as shear rate, temperature and light oil concentration on the viscosity behavior have been
Accepted 15 December 2009
studied. This study shows that the blending of the heavy crude oil with a limited amount of lighter crude
Available online 5 January 2010
oil provided better performance than the other alternatives. Experimental measurements in terms of
shear stress s–shear rate c_ ; and yield stress s0 were conducted on the mixture of heavy crude oil–light
Keywords:
crude oil (O-light). The results showed a significant viscosity reduction of 375 mPa s at a room temper-
Heavy crude oil
Viscosity reduction
ature of 25 °C. This study shows that the heavy crude oil required a yield stress of 0.7 Pa, whereas no yield
Oil/water emulsion stress was reported for the heavy crude oil–light crude oil mixture.
Alcohol Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Yield stress

1. Introduction of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions [3–5]. Such emulsions are consid-

Crude oil is one of the most actively traded commodities in the
world. Oil prices change daily in response to fluctuating conditions
that affect supply and demand. Global demand for crude oil has
been intensifying steadily over the past 20 years, as world demand
for crude has grown from 60 million barrels per day to 84 million
barrels per day. The market price for heavy crude oil is only about
one-half that of light crude oil, which is the price generally quoted
by the media.
Oil transportation has become a complex and highly technical
operation. One of the major difficulties in the pipeline transporta-
tion is the high viscous fluids that require efficient and economical
ways to transfer the heavy crude. Heavy crude oils have a density
approaching or even exceeding that of water. They are usually ex-
tremely viscous, with a consistency ranging from that of heavy
molasses to a solid at room temperature. Heavy crude oils are
not pumped easily through the pipelines because of the high con-
centrations of sulfur and several metals, particularly nickel and
vanadium. Crude oils are complex fluids that can cause a variety
of difficulties during the production, separation, transportation
and refining of oil [1,2].
The formation of emulsion is another problem that occurs in the
petroleum industry. Indeed, crude oil is often mixed with water
when it comes out from a well. As the oil–water mixture passes
over chokes and valves, mechanical input leads to the formation
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mamdouh.ghannam@uaeu.ac.ae (M.T. Ghannam).
ered as a ruthless problem within the petroleum industry due to
their various costly problems in terms of production loss and trans-
port difficulties. Heavy crudes account for a large fraction of the
world’s potentially recoverable oil reserves. The viscosities of those
crudes at room temperature vary from 100 mPa s to more than
105 mPa s. Generally, crude oil with viscosity <400 mPa s is the
classical maximum desired pipeline viscosity [6–8].
Therefore, different methods are used in order to reduce the vis-
cosity of the heavy crude for the pipeline transportation. For in-
stance, dilution with lighter crudes or alcohols, heating, and the
use of surfactants to stabilize emulsions are some of those com-
mon methods. Heating is a common method utilized to overcome
the above noted problems of transporting heavy oil by pipeline [1].
The basis for this method lies in the fact that as heavy oil is heated,
the viscosity of the heavy oil is reduced and thus made easier to
pump. Therefore it is important to heat the oil to a point where
the oil has a substantially reduced viscosity. A principle drawback
to the use of heated pipelines is the high capital and operational
cost of such a heated pipeline over long distances [9]. In addition,
underwater pipeline transportation of heavy oil through a heated
pipeline is very difficult due to the cooling effect of the surround-
ing water and the practical difficulty of maintaining pumping sta-
tions and heating stations [10,11].
Another method utilized in the transportation of heavy crude
oil is the formation of the emulsions [12,13]. In such a method
the heavy oil is suspended as micro-spheres stabilized in a water
continuous phase by the use of surfactants and detergents forming
an O/W emulsion, and thus achieving a reduction in the apparent

0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2009.12.021
1096 S.W. Hasan et al. / Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100
viscosity [14,15]. The principle difficulty with the use of this tech-
nology is the selection and cost of the surfactant component of the
emulsion. Not only the surfactant must be capable of stabilizing
the emulsion during transportation, but it also must be capable
of separation once the destination point of the pipeline is reached
[10,16]. Emulsion properties, such as stability and rheological
properties, are governed by many variables including temperature,
composition and droplet size distribution. The highest level of con-
trol consists of producing monodisperse phase, i.e. narrow size dis-
tributed emulsions with a tunable mean size. Conventional
emulsification devices, such as dispersing machines, colloid mills,
and high pressure homogenizers are used to prepare emulsions
by applying strong shearing stresses. Other novel techniques based
on the application of low shear stresses have been recently devel-
oped where the final state is determined solely by droplet frag-
mentation, allowing good control of the droplet size distribution
[17]. Another phenomenon that might take place is the gelling of
the emulsions due to partial coalescence through which crystals lo-
cated close to the oil/water interface can protrude into the contin-
uous phase which lead them to pierce the film and bridge the
surfaces, causing the droplets to coalesce. However, if the crystal-
lized fraction within the globules is enough, the intrinsic rigidity
inhibits relaxation to the spherical shape driven by surface tension
after each coalescence event. Large stress bearing clusters will ap-
pear and grow by the accretion of any other primary droplet or
cluster until a rigid network made of partially coalesced droplets
is formed, in which the original droplet shape remains recogniz-
able [18]. Blending of heavy oils with lighter oils, hydrocarbon
gases or alcohols are other alternatives to reduce the viscosity of
the heavy oils [19].
The proposed study focused on many significant points in order
to come up with a good understanding of the heavy crude oil flow
properties and how to enhance it. The main theme of this investi-
gation is to examine the rheological properties and the character-
ization of the heavy crude oil. This study is divided into three
sections. The first one is to investigate the different techniques of
reducing the heavy crude oil viscosity such as forming oil–aqueous
solution of surfactant emulsions, blending the heavy crude oil with
alcohol, and blending the heavy crude oil with lighter crude oil at
different temperatures. The second section of the current study is
to verify different rheological models such as Bingham, Power
law and Casson to simulate the flow behavior of the heavy crude
oil. The third section includes the investigation of the yield stress
of the heavy crude oil.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
All crude oil samples used in this study were obtained from
Husky Energy – Lloydminster, Canada. The density and API gravity
of the used heavy crude oil are 995 kg/m3 and 10.71 at 15 °C,
respectively. Initially, the crude oil was homogenized by shaking
it for an hour to ensure that the physical properties of the heavy
crude oil are the same. After homogenization, the crude oil was
used for measurements. The commercial non-ionic surfactant Tri-
ton X-100 from Sigma–Aldrich Canada Ltd., was used as an emul-
sifying agent to form oil–water emulsion. A surfactant material is
usually added into the oil–aqueous solution emulsion system as
an emulsifying agent to accomplish two functions. The first func-
tion is to lower the oil–aqueous solution interfacial tension, there-
fore assisting in the formation of the emulsion system. The second
function of the surfactant material is to stabilize the presence of
the oil droplets phase within the aqueous continuous phase to
avoid the oil droplets coalescence mechanism [20,21]. Ethyl alco-
hol with purity in excess of 99% was provided from Sigma–Aldrich
Canada Ltd.
2.2. Emulsion preparation
An aqueous solution of surfactant was made initially for prepar-
ing oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. The aqueous solution of surfac-
tant with concentration of 0.1% was prepared with distilled
water. A measured volume of the aqueous surfactant solution
was transferred into a conical flask provided with a stirrer. The re-
quired amount of the crude oil was added gradually into the aque-
ous phase while the mixing was provided to form stable and
homogeneous emulsion by breaking large liquid drops into smaller
drops. All surfactant solutions were prepared before mixing with
the crude oil. Afterwards, the emulsion was taken for the
measurements.
2.3. Experimental set-up
The measurements were carried out using RheoStress RS100
from Haake [21]. This rheometer has several operating test modes.
It has a universal controlled rate (CR) mode, a controlled stress (CS)
mode, and an oscillation (OSC) test mode. In the CS mode, shear
stress is applied to a test sample by means of extremely low iner-
tia. The drive shaft of the RS100 is centered by an air bearing to en-
sure an almost frictionless transmission of the applied stress to the
test fluid. The resulting deformation of the sample is detected with
a digital encoder that processes 106 impulses per revolution. This
resolution makes it possible to measure small yield values, strains,
or shear rates. The computer controlled rheometer can be easily
switched between both CS and CR modes, and it can provide oscil-
lating stress inputs. A controlled variable lift speed is used to posi-
tion the cone on the plate. A thermal gap size is controlled to
compensate for any of the sensor generated heat. The software
package ‘‘Haake Windows” controls both test routines and data
evaluation. The rheometer is equipped with a cone and plate sen-
sor. This cone–plate sensor was used with a cone angle of 4°, cone
diameter of 35 mm, and 0.137 mm gap at the cone tip.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Rheological model
The flow behavior of the heavy crude oil sample was investi-
gated over a wide range of shear rates at 25 °C. The measurement
test was conducted under the CR mode, and the values of shear
stress and shear rate were obtained. Fig. 1 shows a typical rheo-
gram in terms of shear stress and shear rate. The resulted shear
stress increases gradually and significantly with shear rate. Model-
T = 25 oC
1000
Shear stress (Pa)
100
10 100 1000
Shear rate (s-1)
Fig. 1. Heavy crude oil rheogram.
 S.W. Hasan et al. / Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100 1097

Table 1 is the effect of temperature. Temperature has a strong effect on vis-

Modeling analysis of Eqs. (1)–(3). cosity and viscous behavior. This effect provides the flow behavior
Power law model m n R2 curve in terms of the viscosity-shear rate or viscosity-shear stress
7.438 0.892 0.994 relationships. Fig. 3 shows the effect of temperature on viscosity-
shear rate for heavy crude oil over the range of 25–75 °C in 10°
Bingham model s0 g R2
179.5 3.338 0.981 increments. The test is done using the CR mode. It is observed that
the crude oil shows non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior over
Casson model s0 g R2
21.788 0.988 0.975 the range of shear rates from 0.6 to 740 s1 in which the apparent
viscosity decreases considerably with temperature and is reduced
by one half when it is heated from 25 to 75 °C. It is also demon-
strated that the viscosity differences are larger at low shear rates
than at high shear rates. As the temperature increases, the compo-
Table 2
DVR% of heavy crude oil versus temperature. sitions of the heavy crude oil with high molecular weight, such as
asphaltenes, resins, waxes etc., do not have the chance to agglom-
Temperature, °C DVR%
erate and form aggregates, and thereby breaking the bonds be-
25 0 tween the solid particles and hence reducing the oil viscosity. To
35 20
access the extent of the viscosity reduction, the degree of viscosity
45 23
55 30 reduction (DVR) is introduced and it can be calculated using Eq. (4)
65 32 [23]
75 36
DVR% ¼ ðgr  gc Þ  100=gr ð4Þ

where gr is the reference viscosity at 50 s1 shear rate and 25 °C,

ing analysis was carried out to search for a certain rheological
model that fits the measurements. Three rheological models of
Power law, Bingham, and Casson models, according to Eqs. (1)–
(3), were investigated in this study. The results of the modeling
analysis are reported in Table 1 and Fig. 2 as well. Where s is the
applied shear stress in Pa and c_ is the corresponding shear rate
in s1, the m and n of Eq. (1) are consistency index in Pa sn and flow
behavior index, the so and g of Eqs. (2) and (3) are the apparent
yield stress in Pa and the apparent viscosity in Pa s. Fig. 2 shows
that the power law model fits the flow behavior of the heavy crude
oil very adequately over the tested range of shear rates. Also Table
1 reports the highest regression correlation coefficient, R2, of 0.994
for the Power law model. This conclusion agrees with other work
[22].
s ¼ mc_ n
s ¼ s0 þ gc_
Pa s, and gc is the corresponding viscosity at 50 s1 shear rate and
corresponding temperature, Pa s. Table 2 reports the DVR% over
the temperature range of 25–75 °C. Over the examined temperature
range, it is noted that there is a significant increase in DVR% from 0%
to 36%. This can be attributed to several reasons. The first reason is
due to the strong effect of temperature on the viscosity of heavy
components in the crude oil such as wax and asphaltene. The sec-
ond reason is due to the effect of high temperatures on the chemical
structure of heavy components which results in destroying the or-
dered structures of heavy components in the crude oil phase, and
hence reducing the oil viscosity [24].
Moreover, it is found that the viscosity of the heavy crude oil
depends on the shear rate. The viscosity reaches low values at high
shear rates. This means that the flow encounters less resistance at
ð1Þ higher shear rates. This is due to the molecular chains found in the
heavy crude oil. As the shear rate increases, the chain type mole-
cules disentangled, stretched, and reoriented parallel to the driving
ð2Þ
force, and hence reduced the heavy crude oil viscosity [21,23].

s ¼ ðs0:5 _ 0:5 Þ2
0 þ ðcgÞ ð3Þ
3.3. Oil/water emulsion

3.2. Temperature effect
One of the important methods that can be used to lower the
heavy crude oil viscosity and enhance, therefore, the flowability
Generally, emulsions are of great interest in many industrial
applications. The formation of oil-in-water emulsion (i.e. O/W
emulsion) is one of the alternatives to enhance the flowability of
crude oil through the pipelines. That is why it is very important
to study the flow behavior of the O/W emulsion. It is established

10000
11
Exprimental Data
Temperature, oC
Power Law Model 25
Bingham Model 10 35
45
Casson Model 55
Shear stress (Pa)

65
9 75
Viscosity (Pas)

1000
8

100 5
10 100 1000 0 200 400 600
Shear rate (s-1) Shear rate (s-1)

Fig. 2. Suggested rheological models. Fig. 3. Effects of temperature on the viscosity of heavy crude oil.
1098 S.W. Hasan et al. / Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100

10 which means that the viscosity becomes independent on the shear

Temperature, oC
25
rate and temperature.
35
8
45
55
65 3.4. Effect of ethyl alcohol addition
6 75
Viscosity (Pas)

Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate the viscosity behavior when the heavy

4 crude oil is blended with ethyl alcohol of 10% and 20% by volume.
2 ported for the 90% crude oil–10% alcohol mixture is similar for
0 ence of 10% alcohol causes strong viscosity reduction by almost
0 200 400 600
Shear rate (s-1)
Fig. 4. Effect of temperature on the viscosity of 90% O/W emulsion.
that the rheological properties of emulsions and their stability are
affected by the volume fraction, and droplet structure of the dis-
persed phase, and chemical composition of each phase [23]. Emul-
sions can be concentrated up to high volume fractions which
correspond to the close packing of an equivalent suspension of
hard spheres, and thus resemble in an elastic solid. By deforming
the droplets interfaces, additional surface area will be created
resulting in minimizing their total free energy. The extra surface
area determines the elastic shear modulus [17]. Surfactants are
chemical materials used as emulsifying agents in order to obtain
O/W stable emulsions by lowering the interfacial tension between
the crude oil–water system, and by stabilizing the presence of the
droplets phase within the continuous phase to prevent the coales-
cence action of the droplets phase [17,20,21]. It is reported that the
viscosity of heavy crude oil decreases as the concentration of the
aqueous solution of surfactant increases [25]. Figs. 4 and 5 show
the viscosity behavior of O/W emulsion versus shear rate. Two dif-
ferent concentrations of aqueous solutions, 10% and 20% by vol-
ume, were examined over the temperature range of 25–75 °C.
As can be noticed from Fig. 6, the non-Newtonian behavior re-
the behavior of the heavy crude oil alone shown in Fig. 3. The pres-
80% at 25 °C (i.e. from 10.0 to 2.0 Pa s). Even more viscosity reduc-
800
tion can be achieved by further addition of alcohol as reported in
Fig. 7. The viscosity reduces from 10.0 to 0.95 Pa s at 25 °C in the
presence of 20% by volume of alcohol. It is suggested that the
reduction of the measured viscosity is due to the interactions be-
tween the hydroxyl functions and some functionalities of the
asphaltenes [19]. As the oil–alcohol ratio decreases, the shear thin-
ning behavior takes place, and the viscosity decreases as the tem-
perature increases. From the foregoing results, it can be concluded
that the blending of heavy crude oil with ethyl alcohol enhances
the flowability of the heavy crude oil and it is much better than
the results obtained from the O/W emulsion technique.
3.5. Effect of light crude oil addition
Another alternative for viscosity reduction was investigated by
blending the heavy crude oil with a lighter crude oil with viscosity
around 0.300 Pa s. The objective from the blending process is to
form a less viscous and less dense crude oil which will be more
2.50
Temperature, oC
25
2.25 35
45
55
2.00 65
75

The viscosity is found to be significantly less than that obtained

Viscosity (Pas)

1.75
for the crude oil alone, and it is reduced by 20% (i.e. from 9.97 to
8.09 Pa s) at 25 °C for the 90% O/W emulsion. Similarly, for the sec- 1.50
ond case of the 80% O/W emulsion, the viscosity decreased even by
a higher percentage of 35% from 9.97 to 6.49 Pa s at 25 °C. 1.25
Figs. 4 and 5 present two distinct regions: the low shear rate re-
1.00
gion up to 500 s1 where the viscosity of the O/W emulsions exhi-
bit a strong non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior, and the 0.75
second region of shear rates >500 s1, where the viscosity of the 0 200 400 600 800
W/O emulsions shows Newtonian profile. For the high shear rate Shear rate (s-1)
region, all curves approach each other forming one master curve,
Fig. 6. Viscosity behavior for 90% oil–10% ethyl alcohol mixture.

10 1.0
Temperature, oC Temperature, oC
25 25
35 0.9 35
8 45
45
55
55 65
65 0.8 75
6 75
Viscosity (Pas)
Viscosity (Pas)

0.7

4
0.6

2 0.5

0.4
0
0.3
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
Shear rate (s-1) Shear rate (s-1)

Fig. 5. Effect of temperature on the viscosity of 80% O/W emulsion. Fig. 7. Viscosity behavior for 80% oil–20% ethyl alcohol mixture.
 S.W. Hasan et al. / Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100 1099

1.50 5
Temperature, oC
25
35
45 4
1.25 55
65

Shear stress (Pa)

75
3
Viscosity (Pas)

1.00

0.75 Temperature, oC
1 25
45
65

0.50 0
0 200 400 600 800 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3
Shear rate (s-1) Shear rate (s-1)

Fig. 8. Viscosity behavior for 90% heavy oil–10% light oil. Fig. 10. Yield stress measurements of heavy crude oil at different temperatures.

0.50 Table 4
Temperature, oC Values of yield stress measurements.
25
0.45 35
Sample Yield stress so, Pa
45
55
65
Heavy crude oil, 25 °C 0.7
0.40
Viscosity (Pas)

75 Heavy crude oil, 45 °C 0.5

Heavy crude oil, 65 °C 0.4
0.35 10% Light crude oil mixture, 25 °C 0.0
20% Light crude oil mixture, 25 °C 0.0
0.30

0.25
0.20
0 200 400 600
Shear rate (s-1)
Fig. 9. Viscosity behavior for 80% heavy oil–20% light oil.
desirable and more suitable for the pipeline transportation. Figs. 8
and 9 illustrate the viscosity behavior when the heavy crude oil is
blended with 10% and 20% by volume of a light crude oil, respec-
tively. The viscosity behavior of the blending mixture behaves sim-
ilarly as that for the heavy crude oil shown in Fig. 3. The presence
of 10% light crude oil causes a strong reduction in the heavy crude
oil viscosity from 10.0 to 1.2 Pa s at 25 °C, which is almost ten
times less than the original crude oil viscosity. On the other hand,
the addition of 20% light crude oil leads to an even higher viscosity
reduction from 10.0 to 0.375 Pa s at 25 °C, which is 26 less than
that of the heavy crude oil alone. As a conclusion, this technique
is recommended more than the other viscosity reduction alterna-
tives, since the viscosity is reduced to 0.375 Pa s at 25 °C in the
presence of 20% light crude oil. Table 3 shows a comparison be-
tween the results of all techniques examined in this study at the
shear rate of 51.74 s1.
3.6. Yield stress measurements
The yield stress, so, is defined as a limiting stress below which a
sample behaves as a solid. At low stress, the elastic deformation
takes place, which disappears when the applied stress is released.
The relationship between the elastic deformation and the applied
800 stress is linear. However, above the yield stress point, the applied
stress leads to unlimited deformation which causes the sample
to start flow [21,26]. The yield stress measurements for heavy
crude oil samples were carried out at different temperatures
employing RheoStress RS100 under controlled stress mode. Con-
trolled stress rheometers provide the most direct technique for
yield stress measurements. Shear stress in the sample is progres-
sively increased with no shear flow reported till the yield stress
is reached. For each test of the yield stress measurements, the as-
signed stress was ramped up from 0.09 to 4.0 Pa within the exper-
imental period of 150 s to establish the rheogram behavior curve of
shear stress–shear rate.
Fig. 10 illustrates the relationship between the assigned shear
stress and the response of shear rate for different temperatures
as a typical example for other tests through which the yield stress
measurements can be conducted for the heavy crude oil. It can be
observed that the yield point which is required to start the flow de-
creases with temperature. The yield point of the heavy crude oil
reaches a value of 0.7 Pa at room temperature 25 °C and it de-
creases to 0.4 Pa when the temperature reaches 65 °C. On the other
hand, the addition of 10% and 20% by volume of light crude oil
diminishes the yield stress value, which means that the presence
of the light crude oil within the heavy crude oil will eliminate
the need for any further stresses to be applied. Table 4 highlights
the measured yield stress values for other samples.

Table 3 4. Conclusions
Comparison between the viscosity results of all techniques at 51.74 s1.

Sample 25 °C 35 °C 45 °C 55 °C 65 °C 75 °C
The objective of this study is to investigate the different alterna-
tives of reducing the viscosity of the heavy crude oil to enhance the
Heavy oil 9.97 8.0 7.65 7.01 6.75 6.33
10% Emulsion 8.09 7.33 6.77 6.49 5.86 5.25
flow properties. The heavy crude oil exhibits non-Newtonian flow
20% Emulsion 6.49 4.67 3.90 3.73 3.39 2.94 behavior of shear thinning profile, which can be best presented by
10% Alcohol 1.97 1.71 1.61 1.40 1.27 1.10 the power law model. A wide range of temperature was covered in
20% Alcohol 0.94 0.88 0.81 0.74 0.66 0.62 this study to examine the effect of temperature on the flow behav-
10% Light oil 1.20 1.11 1.00 0.87 0.75 0.68
ior of the heavy crude oil. The heavy crude oil viscosity decreases
20% Light oil 0.37 0.35 0.30 0.28 0.25 0.23
significantly from 10.0 to 2.5 Pa s when the temperature changes
1100 S.W. Hasan et al. / Fuel 89 (2010) 1095–1100
from 25 to 75 °C. The addition of a limited amount of a lighter
crude oil was investigated as a second alternate to lower the vis-
cosity of the heavy crude oil. It was found that the blending heavy
crude oil with a limited amount of lighter crude oil is the most
appropriate and favorable method to lower the heavy crude oil vis-
cosity. For instance, at 25 °C, the presence of 20% of light crude oil
within the heavy crude oil phase causes 96% viscosity reduction.
The other alternatives included in this study were the addition of
ethanol alcohol and water to the heavy crude oil phase. In the case
of 20% W/O emulsion, the viscosity of the heavy crude oil reduces
to almost 35% of its original value at 25 °C. However, the presence
of 20% alcohol within the heavy crude oil phase leads to 90% vis-
cosity reduction. The flow behavior of the heavy crude oil exhibits
an apparent yield stress of 0.7 Pa, whereas no yield stress is ob-
served in the case of heavy crude oil–light crude oil mixtures.
References
[1] Al-Besharah JM, Salman OA, Akashah SA. Viscosity of crude oil blends. Ind Eng
Chem Res 1987;26:2445–9.
[2] Speight JG. Petroleum chemistry and refining. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis;
1998.
[3] Fingas M, Fieldhouse B. Studies of formation process of water-in-oil emulsions.
Marine Pollut Bull 2003;47:369–96.
[4] Mohammed RA, Bailey AI, Luckham PF, Taylor SE. Dewatering of crude oil
emulsions. 1. Rheological behaviors of crude oil–water interface. Colloids Surf
1993;80:223–35.
[5] Sjoblom J, Johnsen EE, Westvik A, Ese MH, Djuve J, Auflem IH, et al.
Demulsifiers in the oil industry. In: Sjoblom J, editor. Encyclopaedic
handbook of emulsion technology. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.
[6] Nunez G, Briceno M, Mata C, Rivas H, Joseph D. Flow characteristics of
concentrated emulsions of very viscous oil in water systems. J Rheol
1996;40:405–23.
[7] Fruman DH, Briant J. Investigation of the rheological characteristics of heavy
crude oil-in-water emulsions. In: International conference on the physical
modeling of multi-phase flow. England: Coventry; 1983.
[8] Schumacher MM. Enhanced recovery of residual and heavy oils. New
Jersey: Park Ridge, Noyes Press; 1980.
[9] Chang C, Nguyen QD, Ronningsen HP. Isothermal start-up of pipeline
transporting waxy crude oil. J Non-Newt Fluid Mech 1999;87:127–54.
[10] Ali MA, Nofal WA. Application of high performance liquid chromatography for
hydrocarbon group type analysis of crude oils. Fuel Sci Technol Int
1994;12(1):21–33.
[11] Zaki NN, Butz T, Kessel D. Rheology, particle size distribution, and asphaltene
deposition of viscous asphaltic crude oil-in-water emulsions for pipeline
transportation. Petrol Sci Technol 2001;19:425–35.
[12] Wyslouzil BE, Kessick MA, Masliyah JH. Pipeline flow behavior of heavy crude
oil emulsions. Can J Chem Eng 1987;65:353–60.
[13] Zakin JL, Pinaire R, Borgmeyer ME. Transportation of oils as oil-in-water
emulsions. J Fluids Eng 1979;101:100–4.
[14] Sullivan AP, Kilpatrick PK. The effects of inorganic solid particles on water and
crude oil emulsion stability. Ind Eng Chem Res 2002;41(14):3389–404.
[15] Langevin D, Poteau S, Henaut I, Argillier JF. Crude oil emulsion properties and
their application to heavy oil transportation. Oil Gas Sci Technol Rev IFP
2004;59(5):511–21.
[16] Wegener DC, Zornes DR, Maloney DR, Vienot ME, Fraim ML. Heavy oil viscosity
reduction and production. US Patent 6 279 653; 2001.
[17] Leal-Calderon F, Thivilliers F, Schmitt V. Structured emulsions. Current Opin
Colloid Interf Sci 2007;12:206–12.
[18] Carlos R, Lazzari M. Emulsions with structured continuous phases. Current
Opin Colloid Interf Sci 2008;13:198–205.
[19] Gateau P, Henaut I, Barre L, Argillier JF. Heavy oil dilution. Oil Gas Sci Technol
Rev IFP 2004;59(5):503–9.
[20] Sherman P. In: Beacher P, editor. Encyclopedia of emulsion technology. New
York: Marcel Dekker; 1983.
[21] Ghannam MT, Esmail N. Rheological properties of carboxymethyl cellulose. J
Appl Poly Sci 1998;64(2):289–301.
[22] Al Roomi Y, George R, Elgibaly A, Elkamel A. Use of a novel surfactant for
improving the transportability/transportation of heavy/viscous crude oils. J Pet
Sci Eng 2004;42:235–43.
[23] Ghannam MT, Esmail N. Flow enhancement of medium-viscosity crude oil. J
Pet Sci Technol 2006;24(8):985–99.
[24] Khan MR. Rheological properties of heavy oils and heavy oil emulsions. Energy
Sour 1996;18:385–91.
[25] Henaut I, Barre L, Argillier JF, Brucy F, Bouchard R. Rheological and structural
properties of heavy crude oils in relation with their asphaltenes content. SPE
65020; 2001.
[26] Ghannam MT, Esmail N. Yield stress behavior for crude oil–polymer
emulsions. J Pet Sci Eng 2005;47:105–15.