Scale, corrosion, asphaltene, hydrate and wax formation are some of the challenges faced during subsea oil production. Wax deposition is a problem that can arise, when a crude oil containing paraffin wax is cooled down in the pipeline during production. Wax crystallizes at the pipeline wall and the formation of a wax deposit can lead to increased pressure drop and even production stop. To manage these problems, a number of measures exist.

Polymeric wax inhibitors represent a commonly applied chemical measure. These co-precipitate with the wax molecules to alter shape and size of the solid wax particles. Bulk viscosity and pour-point are thereby reduced, hence also the name pour-point depressants.

Research activities focus on the investigation of wax inhibitors and pour-point depressants. The goal is to investigate the effect of different inhibitor chemistries on wax crystallization and measure the interactions between inhibitor and wax.