CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The adhesion or deposition of diverse materials and substances on solid surfaces is the technologic problem known as fouling. This phenomenon includes the marine biofouling, the biomedical biofouling, and the outdoors surfaces fouling, among others. One of the major unsolved complex systems confronting the petroleum and natural gas industries in the production, transportation and processing of petroleum and other heavy-organic-containing hydrocarbons, is the untimely deposition of heavy organic compounds by flocculation and deposition of asphaltene, resin, paraffin / wax, etc., in the reservoir rock tubulars, oil well, pumps, storage vessels, transfer pipelines, and refinery. In all these cases the fouling problem entails important economic consequences. Mansoori (2010). Depositions of the heavy organics present in crude oil happen due to various causes depending on their molecular nature. Diamondoids and paraffin/wax deposit and form solid crystals due, mostly, to lowering of temperature. Afanasyev et. al. (1993), Mansoori et. al. (2003), Mansoori (2007).Paints and coatings are one alternative to achieve an antifouling surface. Other option is to generate a polymeric material with the surface properties desired, such as antifouling. Among the materials used to produce protective coatings, polyurethanes are one of the most popular, together with epoxies. Both of these polymers could also be molded into the final piece accounting for the needed surface properties, if the proper chemical modifier is included in the formulation. Penoff (2012).Over the past few decades, fluorinated polymers had gained ground in the technological applications where antifouling properties are needed. Polymers filled with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particles are the most widely employed in a variety of industries to achieve low surface energy and low friction surfaces. But novel fluoropolymers contain low percentages of fluorine atoms in a high-tech polymer matrix, which gives the advantageous feature of a surface enrichment of the expensive fluorinated modifier and easy processability. Contents of 0.1 ? 5 wt% of fluorine are enough to confer excellent surface properties at the lowest cost. The fluorinated chemical modifier is part of the polymer formulation, so it remains chemically attached to the polymer chains and due to its low surface energy, it naturally migrates to the interface reaching the surface where it must confer the final properties. Meanwhile, the polymer matrix keeps its excellent mechanical and bulk properties. Miccio (2011).As a means to overcome the technologic problems of the petroleum industry, concerning the pipelines fouling, two fluoropolymers were synthesized using a long chain diol as a fluoro-modifier: an epoxy resin and a polyurethane. The epoxy chemical system was that commonly used in the crude oil industry in order to compare the effectiveness of the proposed modification. In this work, the fluoropolymers were synthezised and characterized in terms of their surface properties and their response when put in contact with water. Paraffin from Argentinean oil wells was also characterized. Additionally, two flow configurations were designed and set up in order to study the paraffin deposition in these materials.