Structural and mechatronic aspects of improving the pipeline cleaning pig for creating a heat-insulating layer of wax deposits

Over the last decades one of the key problems of operation of trunk oil pipelines is formation of wax desposits and their deposition on the inner wall of pipelines during pumping of highly paraffinic oil. This process is characteristic both for new fields located in Western Siberia and for fields at the III stage of development with a high degree of exploration and gradually decreasing oil production volume and quality. Paraffinisation of pipes is a negative factor both for oil transportation processes and subsequent diagnostics of main oil pipelines, reducing the reliability of the oil transportation system. Nowadays in practice the struggle against wax deposits is carried out in two directions: removal of formed deposits by means of in-pipe cleaning devices and prevention of their formation by means of application of appropriate inhibitors. According to the results of researches conducted by a number of scientists, including the authors of the article, the economic feasibility of the idea about the efficiency of using the formed wax deposits layer on the inner wall of the pipeline as an additional internal thermal insulation layer was considered and confirmed. At the moment, there is no device in industrial operation whose design allows the formation of a uniform layer of paraffin deposits.

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