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A Brief Discussion on the Current Status and Methods of Oil Tube Cleaning
Currently, both domestically and internationally, common methods for cleaning oil tubes can be divided into physical cleaning and chemical cleaning categories. These include heating cleaning, hot soaking, biocleaning, laser cleaning, dry ice cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, and water jet cleaning, among others. This article reviews the current status and advantages and disadvantages of various commonly used oil tube cleaning methods, providing theoretical support for practical production.
Keywords: Oil tubes; Current status of cleaning; Cleaning methods
At present, common methods for cleaning oil tubes both domestically and internationally can be divided into physical cleaning and chemical cleaning categories, including hot soaking, heating cleaning, laser cleaning, biocleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, dry ice cleaning, and water jet cleaning, among others. Below, we introduce several cleaning methods:
I. Heating Cleaning
The substances adhering to the surface of oil tubes are mainly mixtures of solid and liquid phases. Near the phase transition point, the viscosity of these substances decreases rapidly with rising temperature. Utilizing this characteristic, heating cleaning is employed to reduce the difficulty of cleaning oil tubes. Heating cleaning mainly includes electromagnetic induction heating cleaning, far-infrared preheating flushing cleaning, and efficient hot air oil tube cleaning.
- Electromagnetic Induction Heating Oil Tube Cleaning
- This method involves passing the oil tube through an intermediate frequency induction coil for instant heating, with the heating temperature controlled between 100-130°C and a heating speed of about 10m/min. During heating, the oil and paraffin deposits on both the inner and outer surfaces of the oil tube melt. The inner wall is cleaned with a rotating steel brush while low-pressure large-volume water is applied simultaneously. This method eliminates the need for a boiler as a heat source, reducing cleaning costs, but has a higher initial investment.
- Far-Infrared Preheating Flushing Cleaning
- In cold working environments, paraffin may crystallize on the oil tube walls, causing blockages that affect production. Using far-infrared heating technology, the oil tube is placed within a far-infrared radiation field. When ambient temperatures are too low, the far-infrared preheating system automatically starts, making it convenient and reasonable without needing a thermal medium for direct radiation heating. However, when multiple oil tubes block each other, the cleaning effect diminishes significantly, lowering the efficiency of the cleaning process.
- Efficient Hot Air Oil Tube Cleaning
- Combining electromagnetic induction heating and high-pressure water jet cleaning, this method first heats the oil tube using an intermediate frequency electromagnetic induction coil, then cleans both the inner and outer surfaces simultaneously with a high-pressure water jet. This method also has a high initial investment and complex equipment processes.
The above heating methods have the following drawbacks: (1) High temperatures during heating generate smoke from oil and other residues, polluting the environment and posing a fire risk; (2) Excessively high heating temperatures can damage the metallurgical structure of the oil tube body, while too low temperatures are ineffective for cleaning.
II. Chemical Cleaning
Chemical cleaning relies on chemical reactions using drugs or other solvents to remove dirt from the surface of objects. This method uses a boiler as a heat source to place the oil tube in a tank heated to 80-90°C for soaking, then adds chemical cleaning agents for hot soaking. Due to its high cost, long processing time, poor results, and environmental damage from fuel and cleaning agents, chemical cleaning is rarely used today.
III. Biocleaning
In recent years, a bioremediation method has emerged as an economical and effective technique for cleaning oil tube contamination. Microbial cells produce catalytic enzymes that break down and transform contaminants on the surface of the object being cleaned, achieving a truly environmentally friendly and non-destructive purpose. Biocleaning mainly involves enhanced and degrading types, but due to immature technology, it remains in the early research stage.
IV. Ultrasonic Cleaning
This method utilizes cavitation caused by ultrasonic waves to generate high-speed micro-jets on the surface of the object being cleaned, effectively removing dirt without damaging the surface. It is suitable for cleaning objects of any complex shape and is widely used in medical, power, aerospace, and other fields. It offers high efficiency and quality but requires placing the object at the center of the ultrasonic generator and is less effective on soft materials.
V. Dry Ice Cleaning
Dry ice cleaning uses compressed environmental media to spray dry ice particles onto the surface of the object being cleaned. Upon impact, the energy transfer causes the dirt to freeze and peel off, which is then removed by the high-speed environmental media. Since the dry ice particles sublimate instantly upon impact, they do not damage the cleaning equipment or surface and do not pollute the environment. However, good ventilation is required at the cleaning site.
VI. Water Jet Cleaning
Water jet technology is a recent advancement with wide-ranging applications, including aviation, petroleum, chemical, municipal engineering, coal, construction, metallurgy, transportation, and more. It uses water pressurized by a pump to form a high-pressure water jet, effective for cleaning dirt, pipes, cutting, and rock breaking. Compared to chemical cleaning, water jet technology is cost-effective, non-corrosive to metals, environmentally friendly, non-destructive to the object being cleaned, unaffected by shape limitations, fast, water-efficient, highly effective, and intelligent and automated. Due to these significant advantages, water jet technology is favored globally in the cleaning industry and is widely used in modern cleaning practices. Given its fast cleaning speed, good quality, low cost, minimal pollution, and high degree of automation, water jet technology is predominantly chosen for oil tube cleaning in the oilfield industry.