Study of Paraffin Wax Effect on Base oil flow Behavior

Some of Libyan crude oils are known to have moderate to high content of paraffin wax. Problems related to paraffin wax are adding to the cost of barrel. In this work, the flow behavior of blends made from two types of base oil (N150, N500) have been experimentally studied, the blends were formulated in order to simulate Libyan waxy crude oils, and to exclude any effects of asphalten, resins and sediments which are normally present in crude oil. The main equipment used in this study is a rotational viscometer, measurements were performed by measuring the rheological properties (shear rate, shear stress, yield stress, and viscosity) of the blends at four different wax concentrations [2%, 5%, 8% and 10%wt] and measurements performed at six different temperatures in the range (15 - 60ºC). The flow behavior of the blends found to vary with temperature ranging from Newtonian to Non-Newtonian flow behavior, the apparent viscosity found to increase with decreasing temperature. Furthermore, the measured yield stress of blends found to increase with increasing wax content and decreasing temperature