A Worldwide Development in DRA Study

The latest achievements in study related to DRA's drag reducing mechanism and DRA production at abroad are described in the paper. The current study results have shown that a higher molecular weight of α-olefin polymer can be obtained through bulk polymerization, and the development in solution polymerization improving the distribution of molecular weight has been made. The behaviors of nonaqueous drag reducing suspensions and nonaqueous jel DRA that are currently being used in crude/product pipeline are introduced related to the post-treatment of polymer. The nonaqueous drag reducing suspensions recently developed, suitable to crude or product pipeline, can overcome the shortcomings of the fairly obsolete DRA. It is pointed out that the microencapsulated DRA is a better one to be developed with convenient storage/transportation and application as well as simple post-treating process.