Various techniques were used to compare the effectiveness of a commercially available wax inhibitor (WIA) to a newly developed wax inhibitor (WIEP) using a highly waxy Wyoming crude oil—which causes plugging within wellbores and pipelines. The two additives were compared using centrifuge experiments, cold finger tests, and the precipitation and redissolution waxphaltene determinator (WD) method. Centrifuge tube experiments, and cold finger tests, showed that the newly developed WIEP additive was significantly more effective at reducing the amount of ambient temperature wax crystallites in the crude oil, as well as reducing the amount of wax deposited on a cold finger. WD analysis was performed on model compounds to differentiate between shorter and longer n-paraffins. Whole crude oils, ambient temperature waxes centrifuged from the oils, and waxes from cold finger deposits were also analyzed by the WD method. Taken together with high temperature gas chromatography, the WD profile of whole crude oils readily distinguishes shorter n-paraffins from the more problematic longer n-paraffins that are prone to crystallization at ambient temperature. For treated Elliott crude oil, the WD Analysis profile showed a consistent decrease in wax with WIA concentration to give a linear correlation; however, a less consistent change was observed with the WIEP additive. By applying the WD analysis to the additives themselves, it was elucidated that the WIEP additive contained components that were highly polar and/or more associated. This observation suggests that components in the WIEP additive may self-precipitate to a greater degree than becoming incorporated with the waxes during the WD separation. This effect caused the WIEP to appear as though it is not as effective as the WIA additive in the WD analysis.

中文翻译：

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通过各种技术评估蜡抑制剂的性能

使用各种技术来比较市售蜡抑制剂（WIA）与使用高度蜡质的怀俄明州原油的新开发的蜡抑制剂（WIEP）的有效性，这会导致井筒和管道堵塞。使用离心实验，冷指测试以及沉淀和再溶解蜡质烯烃测定剂（WD）方法对这两种添加剂进行了比较。离心管实验和冷指测试表明，新开发的WIEP添加剂在减少原油中环境温度蜡微晶的数量以及减少沉积在冷指上的蜡​​的数量方面更为有效。对模型化合物进行WD分析以区分较短和较长的n-石蜡。还通过WD方法分析了全原油，从这些油中离心分离出来的环境温度蜡以及从冷指状沉积物中得到的蜡。与高温气相色谱两者合计，全原油的WD轮廓容易区分短Ñ从更成问题更长-paraffins Ñ-在环境温度下易于结晶的石蜡。对于处理过的埃利奥特（Elliott）原油，WD分析曲线显示，蜡的含量随WIA浓度而持续降低，呈线性相关；但是，WIEP添加剂观察到的变化不太一致。通过将WD分析应用于添加剂本身，可以阐明WIEP添加剂包含的极性高和/或缔合度更高的组分。该观察结果表明，与在WD分离过程中与蜡掺入相比，WIEP添加剂中的组分自沉淀的程度更大。这种效应使WIEP显得不如WD分析中的WIA添加剂有效。