Optimal heating ratio of batch pipelining of cold and hot crude oils

Key words:  cold and hot oils alternately  batch pipelining  inlet temperature  heating ratio  heating consumption

Abstract:

Cold oils( not heated oils) and hot oils (heated oils) transported alternately in pipelines is a new technology in the .transportation of crude oils. Choosing an economical heating scheme is one of the crucial technologies in the engineering application. An unsteady hydraulic and thermodynamic model describing the heat and fluid flow characteristics of the batch transportation of cold and hot oils was proposed. The governing equations were solved by the combination of a finite volume method and a thermodynamic characteristic methocf. A code based on the model was developed and verified by the experimental data obtained from a real oil pipeline in China. An optimization model was proposed based on the minimum heating consumption. Numerical calculations were carried out under different heating ratios. The heating consumptions of the low-pour-point oil tail were calculated under different heating ratios. Economical comparison shows there is an optimal heating ratio for the low-pour-point oil to attain a minimum heating consumption.