Total blockage of subsea petroleum production lines due to wax deposition is a relevant problem for the industry. This problem has led to significant capital losses associated with the loss of production and the substitution of plugged lines. The present paper is a study of the feasibility of a remediation procedure aimed at helping the removal of wax plugs. In this procedure, the section of the oil line plugged with wax is inductively heated through an external coil positioned over the line at sea bed. The objective of the work is to estimate the level of electrical power required to soften the wax plug inside the line. To this end, a transient heat conduction model was employed to predict the temperature distribution in the line wall and the solid wax. This information was employed to estimate the basic dimensions of the heating coil section and the thermal insulation employed to minimize the heating losses to the cold sea water environment. A laboratory experimental study with a subsea pipeline section plugged with wax was conducted to verify the numerical model predictions and to test the performance of the inductive heating coil.
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