Shandong Science ›› 2025, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 106-117.doi: 10.3976/j.issn.1002-4026.20240061

• Energy and Power • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research on fouling characteristics of oil-field polymer-bearing wastewater on the surface of heat-exchanger equipment

LI Fengming1, GAO Yajie2,*(), WEI Zhengnan1, YANG Yong1, JIAO Bin1, MA Yong2   

  1. 1. Novel Energy Development Center of Shengli Petroleum Administration, SINOPEC, Dongying 257000, China
    2. College of New Energy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
  • Received:2024-04-12 Online:2025-08-20 Published:2025-08-05
  • Contact: GAO Yajie E-mail:gaoyajie@163.com

Abstract:

Fouling is a common problem in the efficient conversion and utilization of energy as it significantly reduces heat transfer efficiency and jeopardizes the operational safety of equipment. In recent years, with the application of polymer oil drive technology in recent years, the fouling problem caused by HPAM in the recovered fluid has gradually attracted attention. Scaling processes are more complex and fouling is more stubborn in HPAM-containing environments than in HPAM-free environments. Herein, to address the fouling of polymer-bearing wastewater on the surface of heat-exchanger equipment, we experimentally investigated the impacts of factors such as heat-exchanger surface temperature, HPAM mass concentration, hydrolysis degree, fluid salinity, and surface roughness on the fouling rate and identified the fouling patterns of polymer-bearing wastewater on such surfaces. It was found that polymer concentration is the most important factor affecting the fouling rate of polymer-bearing wastewater. The fouling rate decreases and then increases with increasing HPAM mass concentration, and HPAM exerts an antagonistic effect on the fouling rate. The fouling rate increases with increasing heat-exchanger surface temperature, and boiling accelerates the surface fouling rate. In addition, there is a critical degree of HPAM hydrolysis at which the fouling rate is the highest, while the surface roughness has no significant effect on scaling rate.

Key words: polyacrylamide, polymer-bearing wastewater, heat-exchanger surface, fouling rate

CLC Number: 

  • TE345