With the advancement of the “dual carbon” policy, crude oil storage tanks are increasingly adopting nonheated storage methods, which intensifies the flocculation and sedimentation of heavy components and exacerbates sludge deposition at the tank bottom. This issue severely affects the safe operation of storage tanks and the efficiency of pipeline transportation. To address this key problem, this paper provides a systematic review focusing on the flocculation and sedimentation behavior of heavy components in storage tanks, jet mixing treatment, and pipeline transport. It particularly elucidates the microscopic flocculation and aggregation processes of heavy components in storage tanks and summarizes the effects of microstructural interactions on these processes. In terms of jet mixing, the mechanisms by which jet action influences the mixing of heavy components are comprehensively reviewed, along with the distribution characteristics of multi-physical fields within the tank during the mixing process. Regarding pipeline transportation, the effects of transport parameters on solid liquid two phase flow are systematically summarized, and differences in transport states such as pressure drop and flow regimes are compared. In addition, simulation methods for studying the formation, treatment, and transport of heavy components are reviewed in detail. Finally, the limitations of current research are discussed, and future research directions are proposed. This review provides valuable insights into the current state of development in this field.
Wang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.