Strategy of flow improvement for waxy oils by comb polymers

The strategy to improve flow ability of waxy oils by polymer additives is to design comb-type polymer containing alkyl part, amorphous section, and polar groups. Two comb polymers PEB-10 and MAC18-18 were compared based on the relationship between their structures and their effectiveness to improve flow ability of cold waxy oils. The yield stress measurement, which has proven to be a powerful rheological method to evaluate wax modifiers, indicated that PEB-10 is more effective to decrease yield stresses of model waxy oils while MAC18-18 is more suitable for crude oils especially those containing asphaltenes. The observations of crystal morphology by optical microscopy and wax crystallization by differential scanning calorimetry showed good agreement with the rheological results. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 230th ACS National Meeting (Washington, DC 8/28/2005-9/1/2005).