ABSTRACT

Acrylic and methacrylic esters copolymers in various compositions: were synthesized in order to study the chemical structure effect over their effectiveness as pour point reducers in crude oil. Copolymerization results data from octadecyl methacrylate, hexadecyl methacrylate with methyl methacrylate and octadecyl acrylate, hexadecyl acrylate with methyl acrylate revealed superior results for acrylate monomers compared to methacrylate ones. Copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate (EVA) containing 19, 31 and 40% of vinyl acetate were chemically modified aiming to improve their performance as pour point reducer in crude oil. Ester pendant groups were introduced in the copolymer main chains resulting in meaningful increase of their performance as additive.