Iranian Scientists Develop Software to Predict, Prevent ‘Asphaltene’ Sedimentation in Oil Wells
“One of the basic problems in the oil industry is asphaltene deposition. Asphaltene is a compound which has aromatic hydrocarbon structures formed in different stages of production, transportation, refining and processing of crude oil,” said Mohammad Massah, a PhD graduate at Amirkabir University of Technology and the project’s manager.
Noting that these sediments cause a lot of damage to the oil industry every year, he pointed out that many important aspects of this problematic phenomenon remain unknown and no model has yet been able to accurately predict asphaltene sedimentation.
“In this plan, for the first time, we predicted the asphaltene sedimentation profile with very high accuracy, specially without using experimental tuning parameters,” Massah said.
Noting that the accuracy of this model's predictions is equal to particle tracking methods and its computational cost is much lower, he said, “An improved Eulerian sedimentation model that includes different mechanisms of movement and sedimentation of particles (like molecular diffusion and turbulent diffusion, turbophoresis, thermophoresis, and surface roughness) was presented to predict the sedimentation of solid particles in oil wells and we generalized it.”
In another development earlier this year, a knowledge-based company in Iran succeeded in designing and building a top drive drilling device used for drilling oil and gas wells to a depth of over 4,000 meters.
“The top drive device is one of the most important and up-to-date equipment in the drilling industry which is used for drilling and connecting or disconnecting drilling pipes with a different function and it has replaced the old drilling and pipe laying machines,” said Abbas Ali Gorji, the managing director of the knowledge-based Noavaran Taksaz San’at company.
He added that in recent decades, the dominant method for drilling offshore has been the use of this equipment, adding that at present, drilling with a top drive is much faster and safer, specially for hard ground on land or onshore areas.
“Top drive is a portable device that is used in different rigs. The ability to move the top drive properly and quickly on different rigs increases the speed of drilling, which has increased its application in the world's oil industry,” Gorji said.
He stressed that activities of his company in making top drive device are all based on the latest and state-of-the-art technology in drilling industry.
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