Method of reducing the viscosity of hydrocarbon fluids
View Patent ↗This invention relates to methods for reducing the viscosity of hydrocarbon liquids encountered in petroleum operations. The method includes forming a low viscosity emulsion by contacting hydrocarbon liquids with an effective amount of a water-soluble polymer having pendant methyl ether groups.
1. A method for reducing the viscosity of a hydrocarbon fluid encountered in petroleum operations, the method comprising: contacting said hydrocarbon fluid with an effective amount of a water-soluble polymer to form an emulsion, said polymer having pendant methyl ether groups.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water-soluble polymer is derived by substituting methyl ether groups onto a preformed reactive polymer, said preformed reactive polymer being a vinyl alcohol polymer and said water-soluble polymer having from about 20% to about 100% of available reactive groups of the preformed reactive polymer substituted with methyl ether groups.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the preformed reactive polymer is selected from the group consisting of: polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetate, cellulose, starch, galactomannan, galactoglucomannan, xylan, arabinogalactan, chitan, and combinations thereof.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water-soluble polymer is derived by substituting methyl ether groups onto a preformed reactive polymer, and the water-soluble polymer having from about 20% to about 100% of available reactive groups of the preformed reactive polymer substituted with methyl ether groups.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water-soluble polymer further has up to about 80 mol percent of the available reactive groups substituted with hydrophilic groups other than polyvinyl alcohol.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water-soluble polymer has up to about 50 mol percent of the available reactive groups substituted with hydrophobic groups.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the hydrophobic groups have from 2 to about 25 carbons.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the hydrophobic groups are selected from the group consisting of: vinyl acetate; propylene oxide; methacrylate; methyl ethacrylate; octadecylacrylate; n-octadecylacrylamide; styrene; methyl styrene; allyl stearate; vinyl stearate; ethene; propene; n-butene; isobutene; pentene; dodecene; octadecene; vinyl ethers higher than methyl; and combinations thereof.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water-soluble polymer is a cellulose ether.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cellulose ether is selected from the group consisting of: methylcellulose; methyl hydroxyethyl cellulose; methyl hydroxypropyl cellulose; carboxymethyl methylcellulose; methyl hydroxybutyl methylcellulose; and combinations thereof.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cellulose ether is a methylcellulose having a degree of substitution from 1.5 to 2.4.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cellulose ether has a molecular weight from about 5,000 to about 150,000.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cellulose ether has pendant groups selected from the group consisting of: hydroxyethyl; hydroxypropyl; carboxymethyl; hydroxybutyl; hydroxyl; and combinations thereof.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the effective amount of the water-soluble polymer is from about 100 ppm to about 7%, as polymer actives based upon total volume of the emulsion.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the effective amount of the water-soluble polymer is from about 300 ppm to about 4%, as polymer actives based upon total volume of the emulsion.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the effective amount of the water-soluble polymer is from about 500 ppm to about 2%, as polymer actives based upon total volume of the emulsion.