INFLUENCE OF THE WATER SATURATION DEGREE ON DEMULSIFICATION OF THE RHEOLOGIC COMPLEX OILS

Studies of recent years have determined that oil emulsions are also characterized by a degree of water saturation. Since as water saturation increases (water dispersion in oil), the viscosity of oil emulsions increases significantly. The article investigated the rheological properties of various artificially created emulsions based on rheological complex oils at different temperatures. It has been determined that with an increasing of water cut and water saturation, the viscosity of the system will increase. The article also investigated the effect of changing the water content of oil on its demulsification. It has been found that by purposeful enlargement of water saturation it is possible to significantly reduce the demulsifier consumption while maintaining the efficiency of the dehydrating process. Demulsifier Disolvan-4411 was used for demulsification process. Water-oil emulsions with an initial water cut 22%were dosed with various reagent additives and samples were taken for analyzing. Temperature kept identical during all studies. The effectiveness of water-oil emulsions before and after demulsification with the demulsifier was evaluated by the amount of water dropped from stable water-emulsion in graduated bottles (method Bottle Test). Analyzing the stability of oil emulsions depending on water drop, according consumption of demulsifier we found that 2 factors impact effectiveness of demulsification process: the content of aqueous phase and degree of its dispersion. The result of experimental studies show that with an increase in oil water saturation, consumption of demulsifier decreases. Only with increasing water saturation percentage 70% and higher, the water drop rate exceeds 99%, which meets oil treatment requirements Keywords: oil emulsions, water saturation, viscosity, demulsification, demulsifier, flow curves.

A Techno-economic Evaluation of Adding Silica Nanoparticles to Enhance the Demulsification Process in a Crude Oil Central Processing Facility

In this study, a techno-economic evaluation of the use of silica nanoparticles to enhance the demulsification process, in crude oil, has been investigated. A software model has been developed in MS Excel of the central processing facility (CPF). A sensitivity analysis of key parameters on production cost and Net Present Value (NPV) has been carried out for different flowsheet selection options. Comparison of flowsheets on an equal plant capacity basis results in a 19% reduction in the production cost whereas comparison on a fixed annual crude oil processing basis results in a reduction in production cost of only 3.7%.

Mimicking the Crude Oil and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) Demulsification Process in Power Plants for Preparing a New Demulsifiers

Water–in–oil emulsions are a big challenge in the production and processing of crude oil due to its bad influence on the fundamental and practical aspects of industrial facilities. Researches for decades gave this phenomena a great deal in the planning to construct power plants, refineries, oil companies and other industrial facilities that uses crude oil as a raw material. In order to overcome the disadvantages and hazards of water–in–oil emulsions researchers used chemical, electrical, thermal and mechanical methods individually or in combination. The chemical method has gained the main interest due to its ease of use and economic feasibility. Demulsifiers have been used extensively to solve the problem of water in oil emulsions. The choice of using the right combination of chemicals had been reached after studying many factors such as cost and safety. This research addresses many fundamental and practical aspects regarding demulsifiers and oil demulsification aiming to find the best selection of chemicals that can be used to treat crude oil before using, refining or transporting it. The crude oil in this research had been demulsified and tested by the spectroil test method while the bottle test method had not been used to mimic the demulsification process used in power plant. The work was carried out using two types of oil, crude oil (containing 7 ppm Na and K salts concentration) and heavy fuel oil HFO (containing 12 ppm Na and K salts concentration). The crude oil samples were taken from Al – Hilla 2 power plant while the HFO samples were taken from South Baghdad 2 power plant. The results showed that the water miscible chemicals and chemicals with sufficient solubility that used as a demulsifiers like the acrylic derivatives gave the best demulsification when using more wash water percentage. While the combination of water miscible chemicals and chemicals with sufficient solubility and oil soluble chemicals gave the best results in treating heavy fuel oil while using less wash water percentage.

Preparation and Characterization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and its application in Produced Water Treatment and Oil Recovery

Recently, considerable amounts of oil were produced from petroleum industries and lead to serious environmental problems. In this study, Fe3O4 (MNPs) were prepared using combustion synthesis method at temperature range from 150 to 350ºC and then applied with different concentrations to the oil/water emulsion. The synthesized MNPs were characterized using various analytical techniques, and their demulsification efficiencies were then evaluated. Results showed that the application of these nanoparticles could significantly improve the efficiency of the demulsification process, Furthermore, the prepared MNPs were still effective after being recycled for 4 cycles and give oil removal about 90%.

Application of Ionic Liquids for Chemical Demulsification: A Review

In recent years, ionic liquids have received increasing interests as an effective demulsifier due to their characteristics of non-flammability, thermal stability, recyclability, and low vapor pressure. In this study, emulsion formation and types, chemical demulsification system, the application of ionic liquids as a chemical demulsifier, and key factors affecting their performance were comprehensively reviewed. Future challenges and opportunities of ionic liquids application for chemical demulsification were also discussed. The review indicted that the demulsification performance was affected by the type, molecular weight, and concentration of ionic liquids. Moreover, other factors, including the salinity of aqueous phase, temperature, and oil types, could affect the demulsification process. It can be concluded that ionic liquids can be used as a suitable substitute for commercial demulsifiers, but future efforts should be required to develop non-toxic and less expensive ionic liquids with low viscosity, and the demulsification efficiency could be improved through the application of ionic liquids with other methods such as organic solvents.

Laboratory Study of the Effect of Salinity on the Demulsification Process in High Temperature Crude Oil

<em>In the process of drilling and servicing oil wells, KCl and NaCl used to provide hydrostatic pressure into the bowels of the earth. The brine solution was produced accidentally to the surface facility when the oil lifting process was carried out and induces the thickness of the oil-water emulsion in the separation tank. Emulsions must be broken down into oil and water phases so that they do not interact with the oil treatment process in the refinery unit. Emulsion stability was influenced by pH, salinity, temperature and concentration of asphaltene, resin and wax. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of salinity on the oil-water demulsification process. This research was conducted by varying the salinity of 5%, 15%, 25%, and 35% in a 100 ml oil-water emulsion sample with a ratio of 1: 1 oil and water. Demulsification of the emulsion sample using the precipitation method for 120 minutes by recording the% of oil volume separate every 20 minutes, at temperatures of 30 ° C and 110 ° C. The higher the temperature given, the more stable the emulsion in crude oil. From the final result after 120 minutes of pricipitation shows that the emulsion separation process which influenced by NaCl salinity is more difficult than the effect of KCl salinity.</em>

Enhancing Demulsification of Water-in-oil Emulsion by Eliminating Trace Value of Percentage Residual Water

The elimination of residual free water and Basic Sediments (BS&W) after field demulsification process and characterization is being investigated with a diluent, to enhance field treatment for quality assurance and crude oil custody transfer. The American Standard for Testing Materials (ASTM) D 4007 is used as separation technique for three field emulsion samples from two Niger Delta basin oil facilities. After an initial bottle test, free water content in crude oil samples on arrival were 0.65%, 0.70% and 0.55% for samples A, B and C respectively. Tests and analysis were carried out at room temperature of 28°C and a water-bath temperature at 60°C. Maximum water separation efficiency of 91% was achieved at diluent and emulsion concentration ratio of 1:9 in first 60 minutes to 720 minutes. BS&W reduced from an average of 0.6% to 0.25%. Emulsion separation index (ESI) provided emulsion stability measurement of respective samples with a contrast between static-laboratory and field-dynamic conditions. From the study, sample B has API of 39 and ESI=40 while recording greater separation than in A and C crude oil samples. Hence, separation efficiency increased with the amount of xylene added and free water percentages reduced in top dry oil with significant changes in BS&W.

Elaboration of the Demulsification Process of W/O Emulsion with Three-Dimensional Electric Spiral Plate-Type Microchannel

Rapid and efficient demulsification (destabilizing of an emulsion) processes of a water in oil (W/O) emulsion were carried out in a three-dimensional electric spiral plate-type microchannel (3D-ESPM). In this experiment, the demulsifying efficiency of emulsions by 3D-ESPM was compared with that by gravity settling, the factors influencing demulsifying efficiency were investigated, and the induction period, cut size and residence time in the demulsification process were studied. The results showed that in contrast to the gravity settling method, 3D-ESPM can directly separate the disperse phase (water) instead of the continuous phase (oil). The maximum demulsifying efficiency of W/O emulsion in a single pass through the 3D-ESPM reached 90.3%, with a microchannel height of 200 μm, electric field intensity of 250 V /cm, microchannel angle of 180°, microchannel with 18 plates and a flow rate of 2 mL /min. An induction period of 0.6 s during the demulsification process was simulated with experimental data fitting. When the residence time of emulsion in 3D-ESPM was longer than the induction period, its demulsifying efficiency increased as the increase of the flow velocity due to the droplet coalescence effects of Dean vortices in the spiral microchannel. For this device a cut size of droplets of 4.5 μm was deduced. Our results showed that the demulsification process of W/O emulsion was intensified by 3D-ESPM based on the coupling effect between electric field-induced droplets migration and microfluidic hydrodynamic trapping.