Sustainable Imidazolines Derived from Waste Cooking Oil for Corrosion and Paraffin Wax Inhibition in Petroleum Industry

Corrosion and paraffin deposition are the two major problems in the oil and gas industry. While corrosion impacts the integrity, safety, and longevity of structures, the formation of paraffin crystals can cause unwanted production challenges that often lead to reduced production volumes or production downtime. However, most common corrosion and paraffin inhibitors have high environmental footprints in oilfields. This study addresses this challenge by introducing waste cooking oil (WCO)-based imidazolines as corrosion and paraffin inhibitor. Imidazoline was synthesized using WCO and aminoethylethanolamine (AEEA) under atmospheric conditions. The formed imidazoline was characterized by FTIR and GC-FID with a >95% conversion rate. Their corrosion and paraffin inhibition performance was analyzed at different concentrations by rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) and coldfinger apparatus, respectively. WCO-imidazoline showed corrosion inhibition of up to 98% and paraffin inhibition of up to 51% in the oilfield samples. The results showed that the use of WCO is a good alternative for the synthesis of environmentally friendly corrosion and paraffin inhibitors with high inhibition efficiencies.