Rheological behavior of magnetically treated petroleum samples

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Abstract

Much of the oil deposits contain heavy hydrocarbons, the extraction of which is difficult due to
their high viscosity. Magnetic technology has been one of the methods used to solve these
problems. The objective of this research was to evaluate the rheological behavior and viscosity
of several magnetically treated samples of Cuban oil. For this, oil samples with different
physical-chemical characteristics were used to delve into the relationship between the nature of
the fluid and the magnitude of the observed effect. A 0.47 T magnetic conditioner was designed
and the experimental installation was validated as a prediction and diagnostic method for its
application in oil handling. The magnitude of the effect observed in magnetically treated crude
depends largely on the chemical-physical characteristics of the fluid, such as the content of water
and asphaltenes, viscosity, density, among others. In this research, the greatest effects are
associated with crude oils with high viscosity and high asphaltene content. The magnetic
treatment used decreased the viscosity of several samples of Cuban crude oil from 7.6% to
98.17% at different velocity gradients. The rheological behavior of the crude oil samples studied
does not change with the magnetic treatment used, but there are changes in the coefficients of the
rheological models; decreasing the consistency index in all the analyzed samples, which
corresponds to the decrease in the viscosity of the samples after the magnetic treatment.