Research progress of wax deposition in single-phase oil pipeline

Wax deposition is very prominent in the pipeline transportation process of waxy oil, and it endangers the flow safety of the pipeline seriously. In this paper, the latest domestic and foreign research results of wax deposition were introduced from the aspects of wax deposition mechanism, wax deposition experimental device and wax deposition model, and the new methods to measure the thickness of wax deposition were illustrated. The effects of crude oil temperature and flow rate on wax deposition thickness and wax content in deposition layer were mainly analyzed. And besides, the research progress of the wax deposition model was introduced. According to the related research status, it was proposed to study the wax deposition in oil pipelines with the wax deposition mechanism as the beginning and analyze the characteristics of wax deposition experiments by virtue of loop experiment device while considering the effect of non-Newtonian characteristic emerging after wax precipitation on the wax deposition. It is of great engineering significance to solving the wax deposition in oil pipelines, ensuring the pipeline transportation safety of waxy oil and improving the transportation efficiency.