Wax precipitation from North Sea crude oils. 4. Thermodynamic modeling

Wax precipitation measurements on 16 North Sea oil mixtures have been used to improve the model of Won for prediction of liquid-wax phase equilibria. It is shown that the amount of was precipitated as a function of temperature at atmospheric pressure can be predicted with reasonable accuracy using regular solution theory for the liquid and solid phases. The solid-phase solubility parameters must be somewhat increased as compared with the solubility parameters of normal paraffins and the assumed amount of heat liberated during the liquid-wax transition has to be reduced considerably as compared to the melting enthalpies of pure normal paraffins