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Nanotechnology is a scientific discipline that has a wide range of applications in practically every aspect of modern life, particularly in the fabrication of nanomaterials and nanocomposites. Due to the importance of this sector economically and in terms of energy supply, one of the most important applications of nanomaterials is their large scale use to remove or minimize the hurdles that the oil and gas industry faces. The hydrothermal method was used to prepare novel Rhodium borate nanoparticles, which were made by first obtaining Rhodium oxide from Rhodium acetate, then reacting with boric acid and other cofactors. The efficiency of the process for generating Rhodium borate nanoparticles was extremely high. The efficiency of the process for generating Rhodium borate nanoparticles was extremely high. The validity of the obtained results was confirmed by the diagnostic and estimation procedures utilized in this work (XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and TEM). One of the most critical processes in petroleum processing is demulsification. To avoid issues during oil transportation and handling, oil emulsions must be broken down. Because of the water content and dissolved salts in the aqueous phase of the emulsion, the presence of water in the crude oil is undesirable and can lead to pipeline corrosion and increased transportation costs. The physical and chemical features of crude oil from the Halfaya oil field in southern Iraq, which is known to contain a certain percentage of water, have been investigated. Rhodium borate (Rh2O3. B2O3·H2O) (DF1) nanoparticles were utilized in this work to separate water from crude oil emulsions. Effective aggregates exist in the synthesized Rhodium borate nanoparticles, allowing them to operate as demulsifying agents. The separation of water from the emulsion by the produced rhodium borate (DF1) and the standard demulsifier (RP96BQ) used in the same oil field at constant temperature (60 °C) and with varying concentrations was compared in this study using crude oil samples. A high separation efficiency was obtained for the prepared nano demulsifier with a percentage of up to (84.2%) compared with the standard demulsifier (RP96BQ).

The demulsification and dewatering of the W/O emulsion are widely used in petrochemical industry, oilfield exploitation, and resource and environmental engineering. However, efficiently treating emulsion via traditional single methods. In this study, a new double-field coupling demulsification and dewatering device is proposed, where the conical structure of the device is double spherical tangential type. The numerical model for double-field coupling is established, especially, the population balance model (PBM) is used to simulate the coalescence and breakup of dispersed droplets under the double-field coupling action. And the effects of three conical structures on the internal flow and separation efficiency are analyzed. Results show that the conical structure has a significant effect on the coalescence of droplets, especially the double spherical tangential cone is more conducive for improving the coalescence ability of small droplets and improving the separation efficiency of the device. After optimization, the optimal R value of the double spherical tangential coupling device is 300 mm, and the separation efficiency can be up to 96.32%, which is 6.13% higher than the separation efficiency of the straight double-cone coupling device.

In present study, a naturally derived demulsifier (DEMLOCS) is formulated with extract of Cocos nucifera which acts as a potential bio-degradable and environment-friendly demulsifier. The emulsion ...

In this work, a hyperbranched polymer (PDBM) was prepared via a simple “one-pot” reaction process using diethyl bis(hydroxymethyl)malonate as the centronucleus. Its structure and thermal stability were characterized by 1H NMR, FT-IR and TG-DTG. The factors affecting the demulsifying performance such as the dosage of demulsifier, standing time and salinity were systematically studied in diesel-in-water (O/W) emulsion at 25 ℃. After adding 100 mg/L of PDBM and standing for 60 min at 25 ℃, the light transmittance of separated water (TSW) could up to 91.4%. In addition, the properties of interface and surface, zeta potential, microscopic images and droplet size distribution provided the clues for possible demulsifying mechanism. To further exploring the mechanism, the polymer (PDM) with a similar structure was also synthesized by the same method. It showed that the hydroxyl groups at the centronucleus of PDBM played a key role in the demulsification process of the O/W emulsion.

The complicated nature of crude oil emulsions is part of the major setbacks associated with the postulation of methods for phase separation and demulsification in the oil industry. Despite the increasing efforts in generating efficient and dependable demulsification methods, the majority of emulsions cannot be shattered in reduced times. This review examines the trending techniques of crude oil demulsification in the petroleum industry. Several approaches have been examined to discover the best method of demulsification. Hence, this reports reviewed the past studies on the emulsion, formation of oil emulsions, methods of demulsification, characteristics of demulsifier, mechanism of demulsification, kinetics in demulsification, operating parameters influencing the demulsification processes, the structure of demulsifier, and formulations that are involved in the demulsification. The formulations of crude oil demulsification have been investigated to unveil adequate demulsifiers for crude oil. Therefore, demulsification approaches have several applications due to wider varieties of crude oil, separation equipment, brines, chemical demulsifiers, the method in which demulsifiers is been formulated, and product specifications.

Understanding what governs the water-in-oil emulsion film stability and demulsification is important for science and technology. The demulsification of the tar sands’ water-in-bitumen emulsion and proposing methods for demulsification with an efficient demulsifier (emulsion breaker) are important but challenging tasks. Despite the long period of time researchers have been examining the factors governing bitumen emulsion stability and demulsification, these concepts are still not well understood and require more study. Due to the lack of suitable robust methods to reveal what governs bitumen emulsion thinning and stability, additional study is needed. The goal of this research is to provide an understanding of the role of the asphaltene-resin nanoparticles on the bitumen film and emulsion stability and to propose a possible solution to the challenges presented. The techniques were developed and applied to monitor the curved and flat bitumen emulsion films’ thinning in transmitted and reflected light. The observed plane bitumen emulsion film stepwise thinning in reflected light interferometry reveals the role of the layered-lattice film structural stabilization. The role of the asphaltene-resin structure formation on film stability is discussed and a model is proposed. The data obtained by the techniques help to propose a methodology to optimize the performance of the demulsifier.

A magnetic demulsifier, denoted M-Gn-PAMAM (n = 1, 2, 3), was synthesized by reacting polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers with Fe3O4@SiO2. The characteristics of magnetic nano-polymer were investigat...

In this work, a PAMAM@SiO2 demulsifier was synthesized by the reaction of a hyperbranched poly (amido amine) (PAMAM) and KH570 modified SiO2. The structure, morphology and composition of PAMAM@SiO2...

It was shown that methacrylic acid-ethyl acrylate copolymer (P(EA-MAA)) emulsion has a good reverse demulsification performance for treatment of water produced in oilfields. Its polymerization mech...

The heteroatoms (sulfur and nitrogen) and metals (ferrum and calcium) in coal tar can easily cause the corrosion of hydrogenation equipment, catalyst poisoning, and environmental pollution. These should be removed before coal tar is hydrogenated. In this study, with the acid refining method, the effects of three polyether demulsifiers (i.e., PD1, PD2, and PD3), polyamine carboxylate demetallizers (i.e., PCD1, PCD2, and PCD3), and separation temperature on the removal of ferrum, calcium, sulfur, and nitrogen in medium- and low-temperature coal tar were determined. PD2 was selected, and the added amount was 200 μg·g–1. When the PD2 demulsifier was added alone or PD2 demulsifier with various demetallization agents was added, heteroatoms in coal tar could be effectively removed. For the experiments and analysis, the pretreatment conditions of coal tar were as follows: the addition amount of the PD2 demulsifier was 200 μg·g–1, the addition amount of the PCD3-type demetallization agent was 400 μg·g–1, and the stirring temperature was 80 °C. Before and after pretreatment, the methods of inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometer, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (MS), and Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance MS were used in the present study to explore and analyze the distribution, occurrence form, and removal law of sulfur in coal tar. As revealed from the results, sulfur compounds in coal tar 360 °C fraction (heavy coal tar fraction, HF). After the compounds were pretreated, the sulfur removal rate reached 40.0% in LF, and the sulfur compounds were primarily removed. For HF, the sulfur removal rate reached 20.1%. In addition, S1 compounds within the dibenzothiophene derivatives exhibiting more side chains and a larger condensation degree were basically removed. S2 compounds, mainly linked to several quinolines or more aromatic rings and thioether-aliphatic amine sulfur compounds exhibiting small molecular weight and simple structures, were relatively easy to remove. The SO class (e.g., the sulfones and thiophene-ketone group) was more difficult to remove.

A simple, efficient and environmentally-friendly pretreatment technique was proposed for determination of alkylphenols (4-tert-octylphenol, nonylphenol and octylphenol) in drink samples using high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection. In this approach, the extractants in the form of (green) medium-chain fatty acids were generated in situ in the Pasteur pipette and extractant droplets dispersed by CO2 generated by an effervescent reaction. A demulsifier was then used to break up the emulsion and induce phase separation, thus avoiding the need for a time-consuming centrifugation step. Finally, the floating extractant droplets were collected through solidification. Under optimal conditions, a good linearity was obtained in the concentration range from 0.1 μg/mL to 10 μg/mL, with determination coefficients ranging from 0.997 to 0.999. The extraction recoveries varied from 75.8% to 94.4% and the limits of quantification were in the range of 1.55–2.30 μg/L. The developed approach had good prospects in detection of alkylphenols in mineral water, tea drink, carbonated drink and Baijiu.

The rising production of produced water from oilfields had been proven to bring detrimental environmental effects. In this study, an efficient, recyclable, and environmental-friendly reduced graphene oxide immobilized κ-Carrageenan hydrogel composite (κCaGO) was fabricated as an alternative sorbent for crude oil-in-water demulsification. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was employed to form a stable hydrogel composite. The conditions for the immobilization of graphene oxide (GO) on PEI-modified κ-Carrageenan (κC) beads were optimized appropriately. An immobilization yield of 77% was attained at 2% PEI, 2 h immobilization activation time, and pH 6.5. Moreover, the synthesized κCaGO is capable of demulsification with an average demulsification efficiency of 70%. It was found that the demulsification efficiency increases with salinity and κCaGO dosage, and it deteriorates under alkaline condition. These phenomena can be attributed to the interfacial interactions between κCaGO and the emulsion. Furthermore, the κCaGO can be recycled to use for up to six cycles without significant leaching and degradation. As such, the synthesized κCaGO could be further developed as a potential sorbent substitute for the separation of crude oil from produced water.

Various flooding technologies were applied in the middle and late stages of the oilfield, which made the heavy oil emulsion receive much concern because of its high stability and separation difficulty. In our paper, alcohol molecules were used as initiators and multibranched block copolymers were synthesized through open-loop polymerization technology. A variety of novel modified block polyether demulsifiers with demulsification activity were finally synthesized through water-soluble modification and oil-soluble modification, which achieved efficient demulsification of heavy oil emulsions. Hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) values and surface tension were used to characterize demulsifiers. In addition, their demulsification efficiency was evaluated by measuring the amount of dehydration in the separated heavy oil emulsion experiments. The experimental results showed that within 5 h, the demulsification effect of the water-soluble demulsifier is better than that of the oil-soluble demulsifier. When the HLB value of the demulsifier reaches a certain value, the dehydration rate and the demulsification effect reach the highest point. When the amount of demulsifier is 50 μg/g and the demulsification temperature is 85 °C, the dehydration rate of the water-soluble demulsifier X-6 reached 91%, the water quality was clear, and the demulsification effect reached its peak. This work will provide a novel and efficient demulsifier for demulsification and dehydration of heavy oil emulsions.

Three bio-based crude oil emulsion breakers have been prepared from agricultural waste by chemical treatment of cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) extract with triethanolamine via a one-pot reaction at 120 ℃. The triethanolamine-ester derivatives were characterized by Fourier Transform–InfraRed spectroscopy. Their effectiveness as crude oil emulsion breakers were investigated experimentally using the bottle test method. The effect of solvent type, water content, and concentration of the emulsion breaker, was used to study the demulsification process and determine their demulsification efficiency at a temperature of 60 ℃ for a contact time of 180 min. A commercial demulsifier, PhaseTreat 4633 (PT-4633) was used as a benchmark. Performance evaluation of the prepared emulsion breakers revealed their effectiveness in descending order as: triethanolamine dianacardate (TED) > triethanolamine trianacardate (TET) > triethanolamine anacardate (TEA). The data reveals that their emulsion breaking efficiency increases with increasing emulsion water content, and concentration. PT-4633 exhibited better demulsification efficiency than the triethanolamine-esters in xylene across the concentration and water content studied. Improved water separation was however observed for the triethanolamine-esters in butanol, as triethanolamine trianacardate (TET) performed better than PT-4633 at 10 ppm to 20 ppm at 30% water content with a water separation of 83.33% and 80% respectively. The evaluated triethanolamine ester derivatives exhibited better emulsion breaking potentials in butanol than xylene at shorter times, which may be due to the synergistic effect of butanol. Therefore, butanol could be used as a sustainable solvent substitute for xylene in demulsifier formulations.

Spontaneous emulsification near the oil-water interface and destabilization of water-in-oil emulsions in the bulk oil phase may affect the efficiency of improved oil recovery. In this study, we investigate the effect of a demulsifier surfactant on spontaneous emulsification near the oil-aqueous phase interface and in the bulk oil phase through imaging. The results show that pronounced spontaneous emulsions may form near the oil-aqueous phase interfaces. The mechanism of diffusion and stranding is believed to dominate spontaneous emulsification. A demulsifier surfactant, which has been used for demulsification of water-in-oil emulsions in the bulk oil phase, is found to enhance spontaneous emulsification near the oil-water interface. The diffusive flux of water through the interface can be enhanced if the demulsifier is added into the aqueous phase, in which the demulsifier may act as a carrier. It can generate a region of local supersaturation combined with hydrated asphaltenes and result in faster and stronger spontaneous emulsification. We also investigate the effect of a viscosifier polymer on emulsion formation. The polymer is used to improve sweep efficiency in oil displacement. In this work, we show that it can inhibit emulsification in the bulk oil phase, but its effect on spontaneous emulsification near the interface is not pronounced.

In this study, the Sany-glass test was used to evaluate the performance of a new surfactant prepared from corn oil as a demulsifier for crude oil emulsions. Central composite design (CCD), based on the response surface methodology (RSM), was used to investigate the effect of four variables, including demulsifier dosage, water content, temperature, and pH, on the efficiency of water removal from the emulsion. Besides, analysis of variance was applied to examine the precision of the CCD mathematical model. The results indicate that demulsifier dose and emulsion pH are two significant parameters determining demulsification. The maximum separation efficiency of 96% was attained at an alkaline pH and with 3500 ppm demulsifier. According to the RSM analysis, the optimal values for the input variables were 40% water content, 3500 ppm demulsifier, 60 °C, and pH 8.

Emulsions are undesirable in the petroleum industry, as these often lead to numerous problems such as the corrosion of equipment, high-pressure drop in the pipeline, high pumping cost, and poisoning of the catalyst in upstream facilities, thus, add to the overall production cost. These emulsions are mostly encountered during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) because of the chemicals used in the process. Petroleum emulsions are commonly treated using surface-active agents known as demulsifiers. Demulsifiers can disrupt the interface between the water and the oil and separate them into individual phases. This study aims at optimizing some existing parameter conditions to obtain maximum demulsification efficiency of oil-in-water emulsions using two cationic demulsifiers namely, Cetyl-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and Trimethyl-tetradecyl ammonium chloride (TTAC). The bottle test technique was used to investigate the effect of demulsifier concentration, settling time, and oil to water ratio on the demulsification efficiency. Experiments were designed using the Central Composite Design (CCD). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the significance of the experimental factors, and the factors were then optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that all the factors studied significantly impacted the response (demulsification efficiency) and presented a p-values < 0.0001. The maximum demulsification efficiency of 82.6% and 80% were achieved at the optimum conditions of 850 ppm demulsifiers concentration within 10 h of settling time for both CTAB and TTAC emulsifiers.

The article deals with the issues of improving the quality of highly watered well production fluid processing using chemical demulsifier reactants at crude oil processing facilities; the analysis of the use of the reactants at the Samotlor field has been made. The article presents the results of the study of the effectiveness of the "Hercules 2202 grade A" and "SNPH-4460-2" demulsifiers in comparison with the indicators of oil and bottom water processing achieved in the presence of the reactants used at existing facilities; their optimal consumption has been determined. The study has shown that the selected demulsifiers provide the required quality of the oil and water under processing at the considered oil processing facilities and can be used along with the basic reactants for these facilities. On the basis of total indicators, the best results have been achieved using "Hercules 2202 grade A" with the improved indicators of water cut and residual oil content in water by 33.9 % and 2.8 % while reducing the reactant consumption by 9.7 % compared to the basic demulsifier.

In the present work, an amphiphilic and magnetically recyclable graphene oxide (MR-GO) demulsifier was devised and synthesized by graft of magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2-APTES) and ethylenediamine on the GO surface. The wettability and surface charges of MR-GO under various pH conditions can be regulated via adjusting the contents and species of surface functional groups (such as amino, carboxyl, and hydroxyl). In the demulsificaition test, MR-GO displayed favorable demulsification performance for crude oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion under pH of 2.0-10.0, thusly greatly improving the application scope of common demulsifier. The optimal dosage of MR-GO was 200 mg/L and the demulsification efficiency attained a maximum value of 99.7% for crude O/W emulsion with pH of 6.0. What's more, owing to its magnetic response performance, the MR-GO can be reused and the demulsification efficiency remained above 91.0% after six cycles. Based on the strong interfacial activity, MR-GO can arrive to the crude oil-water interface. With the synergy effects of interfacial adsorption (π-π/n-π) interactions and electrostatic attraction of demulsifier and interfacial films, and the aid of external mechanical forces, the interfacial films stabilized the emulsion were disrupted. Therefore, the oil droplets coated on the water droplets were gathered rapidly to form oily flocs and then migrated to the water surface to accomplish the demulsification of crude O/W emulsion.

The paper presents the results of the research on formulation of demulsifiers at laboratory scale and overall assessment of the physical and chemical properties of the demulsifiers to consider their ability to meet the technical requirements of oil companies. The results showed that the formulated demulsifier has good demulsifying efficiency (equivalent to commercial chemical products and the quality of separated water is higher), thermal stability and is suitable for crude oils currently produced in Vietnam. The results from physical and chemical properties testing and analysis such as density, pour point, pH, and solubility also meet the requirements of oil and gas companies in Vietnam.

The study was conducted in Palouge Field in Malute Basin Block 3&7 located in the Republic of South Sudan This paper discusses problems related to oil emulsions that have been encountered in Palouge Field. Oil samples collected from 17 Oil Gathering Manifold (OGM), viscosities range from 106cP to over 8159cP (@ 50ºCand API gravities ranged from 13 to 25. Emulsion from 2 up to 33and water cut form (7% water cut to over 77%), Pour Point 30 to 420 .These properties provide an interesting case of operational problems in oil water separation.The main causes of emulsion formation in the investigated fields were water cut, temperature, shear, Pour Point, demulsifier dosage and mixing different crudes. The results show a strong correlation ofPour Point (Paraffinic content which lead to stabilized emulsion)in the crude oil with the water-oil separation index or emulsion tightness. Recommendations are made for reducing and optimizing demulsifier dosage by adding chemical additives,and further comprehensive study should be done to determine the compounds which lead to stabilized emulsion for example Naphthenic compound and Asphaltenic.

A novel PPS@ZIF-8 demulsifier was developed through grafting branched polyether polysiloxane (PPS) molecules onto the ZIF-8 crystal. This demulsifier presented a rough surface structure with interconnected pores, large surface area and high hydrophobicity. When processing the simulated alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding produced water that contained 0.4 g L−1 oil, the demulsifier exhibited an oil removal rate of 90.03%, much higher than that of PPS (65.66%) and ZIF-8 (55.43%). The excellent oil removal rate was ascribed to its abilities to destabilize and coalesce the emulsified fine-sized oil droplets, including the demulsification of PPS and the adsorption of ZIF-8. An adsorption kinetics and isotherm study manifested that oil drops uptake onto ZIF-8 exhibited homogeneous and monolayer adsorption. A maximum adsorption capacity of 1753 mg g−1 was achieved due to the electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction between ZIF-8 and oil. The PPS@ZIF-8 demulsifier with unique oil adsorption properties offers great potential for oily wastewater treatment.

Natural product-based materials have gained significant interest in replacing the petroleum-based oil chemicals with environmentally friendly materials. A corn oil-based demulsifier has been successfully synthesized by the condensation reaction of corn oil with diethanolamine in the presence of a catalyst applied during separation via a water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion. The demulsifier was characterized by FTIR, GC-MS, and LC-QTOF-MS analyses. The surfactant's separation efficacy was studied using the Sany-glass test. The results showed that this new product efficiently demulsified the W/O emulsion with 98% separation achieved. The influence of settling time, demulsifier dosage, and temperature on the demulsification efficiency were investigated. The separation efficiency increased with increasing settling time, demulsifier dose and the temperature conditions accelerate the demulsification process. As well, the interfacial tension decreases with increases of the demulsifier dose.

High-frequency pulsed alternating current field (HFPACF) has attracted attentions owing to its excellent performances of eliminating short circuit, saving energy and reducing environmental pollution. To study the coalescence mechanism of aqueous drops in water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions under HFPACF, micro-behavior of dispersed drops for W/O emulsion was monitored by using a self-designed micro-visual model and coalescence mechanism was analyzed by discussing effects of pulse amplitude, pulse frequency, pulse width ratio, demulsifier concentration, aqueous mass ratio of emulsion, and different model oil emulsions. The results show that the dispersed drops coalesce under the action of electric field, and the particle size of dispersed drops increases with the increase of pulse frequency and amplitude. When the pulse frequency or amplitude reach to a critical value, aqueous drops are driven to form water string or water channel between two electrodes which hinders further drops coalescence in other areas. However, with the increase of pulse width ratio, the size of dispersed drops increases slowly. The optimum pulse frequency and pulse amplitude are obtained at 3.9 kV and 4.21 kHz, respectively, the optimal pulse width range is 54.9%-84.4%. When the concentration of demulsifier is 60 mg/L, the synergistic demulsification effect achieves the highest performance. When the aqueous mass ratio of emulsion reaches a high level (over 30%), which means the drops in emulsion have big size, the coalescence performance under the same electric field strength is great. Also, it is discovered that the dispersed drops in Yongping model oil emulsion have difficulty in forming water chains, since there are much asphaltenes and resins in the water-oil interface leading to high strength of film. For Shuanghe oil emulsion drops are prevented from coalescing, because it contains a mass of paraffin, which can stabilize emulsion at low temperature.

An emulsion is one of the problems that often occur in oil production activities. Emulsions happen when water is produced with oil. The presence of emulsions in crude oil makes it difficult for crude oil to be processed and the quality of the oil does not become good because it causes water to be contained in crude oil. An effort to overcome is to use a demulsifier. This study aims to test the demulsifier from corn oil. It will be processed with the saponification process to become a demulsifier. KOH and glycerin are used as additives in the saponification process. The substances found in corn oil are palmitic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid, linolenic acid, and oleic acid. In the demulsification process used three various demulsifiers. There are commercial demulsifier (DK), green demulsifier 1 (DG1), green demulsifier 2 (DG2). Green demulsifier 1 and green demulsifier 2 are demulsifiers mixture by corn oil process, whereas the commercial demulsifier is chemical used to in the field. Demulsifier derived from corn oil are expected to have the ability to separate water from oil better than commercial demulsifiers. Demulsifier testing is done using the bottle test method. The test was carried out for 180 min and carried out observations every 30 min. The bottle test method was carried out using a water bath. Demulsifiers made from natural ingredients have better abilities than commercial demulsifiers. The best test results by the green demulsifier at 80 °C with a concentration of 5 ml separated 39 ml of water. While the commercial demulsifier with a concentration of 5 ml separates 32 ml of water. So demulsifier made from corn oil is more effective in separating water than commercial demulsifiers.

With the use of chemically based enhanced-recovery methods, water management, which has always been a major point in the production-operation processes, needs to be considered and adapted because the whole water cycle will be affected by the backproduced additives. Enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) chemicals such as alkali molecules, high-molecular-weight polymers, or surfactant formulation will dramatically modify pH, viscosity, and phase behaviors of produced fluids. The main issues encountered in oil/water-separation processes are directly related to the risk of tight emulsion formation, which might considerably complicate the surface-water-treatment processes. The objective of this paper is to underline the effect of one of these chemicals, a surfactant formulation, on the produced-water cycle when they are backproduced first at a laboratory scale and second on a large-scale separation unit using an industrial-size flow loop and a well-instrumented separator. Our goal is first to investigate the impact of surfactant on the water/oil mixture separation efficiency, and second, to find an efficient demulsifier specific for this case. At the laboratory scale, the impact of surfactant within produced fluids on oil/water separation (regarding separation kinetics but also oil/water phase qualities) will be evaluated by performing bottle tests. Those laboratory bottle tests enabled us to screen different parameters, such as the surfactant concentration, the water cut that can strongly affect the type of formed emulsion [oil in water (O/W) or water in oil (W/O)], and its stability. The oil/water phase qualities were quantified and correlations with parameters related to the large-scale experiment were drawn, helping us in defining the key parameters for this campaign. Indeed, to get closer to a field case, a semi-industrial-scale test platform was used. The flow loop reproduces separation process conditions encountered in a field treatment facility, including the production separator, the controlled temperature, and the oilfield chemical injection rate. The main operating conditions are liquid flow rates and temperature. The influence of different parameters can be studied, such as the surfactant concentration, mixing conditions, residence time, water cut, and the presence of chemicals that will help the separation process. Different types of emulsions were formed depending on the conditions, and their stability was evaluated through the measurement of separation profiles using a single electrode capacitance probe (SECAP) within the separator. The results obtained show how the surfactant, as well as the demulsifier concentration, have led to different types of emulsions and have affected the oil/water separation processes. These tests have confirmed that separation is more difficult in the presence of surfactant and that water quality was degraded. It has also been shown that separation processes can be greatly improved by adding some EOR-compliant demulsifier to recover a better water quality compared with the surfactant case. Laboratory workflows, as well as experiments performed at large scale using an industrial size separator, could help to minimize risks of operations to mitigate these challenges in terms of separation issues. This work illustrates that water management is a major challenge for produced fluids containing EOR chemicals that need an integrated approach and should be studied beforehand.

It is greatly desired to develop a high-efficiency demulsifier for the treatment of O/W emulsions in the production fluids of the petroleum industry. In this study, the amphiphilic Janus-SiO2 nanop...

Summary The use of chemical demulsifiers in the treatment of crude oil emulsions is an essential step in processing facilities worldwide. Each production facility requires specific demulsifier reformulations as the crude characteristics change. The assessment of candidate demulsifiers before online field trials is currently done with bottle tests. Such tests are manual, based on water dropout visually measured by operators. The development of a method that can automatically determine the speed and amount of water dropout without the laborious need to manually record water separation would significantly decrease human error. Pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR) is used as a classification tool to qualitatively rank the efficiency of different demulsifiers in breaking Arabian Light emulsions. This imaging method can evaluate demulsifier action based on the emulsion characteristics; for example, rate of sedimentation and coalescence and formation of a dense packed zone (rag layer). The results are validated against field trials performed in gas-oil separation plants (GOSPs) at two Saudi Arabian facilities. There was good agreement between the PFG-NMR method and field trials. The results were found to correspond to the water dropout in the first stage of crude oil treatment in processing plants (production traps).

In current study, a magnetic recyclable carbon nanotube demulsifier (CNTs/Fe3O4) was synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscope, and vibr...

Emulsion treatment is one of the major challenges in crude oil production, transportation and processing. It has great impact crude oil quality, refining costs and environment. The use of chemical demulsifiers is a widely accepted procedure in the industry. However, demulsifiers used in treatment of crude oil emulsions in Nigeria industries are imported. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a new ionic demulsifier used in the treatment of crude oil samples obtained from the Niger Delta. Six emulsion samples were formulated at 1000 and 3000 rpm and at 0, 71.4 and 143 g/L salinities. The temperature, interaction time and chemical concentrations were varied in their demulsification treatment. The new demulsifier was used to treat the emulsions under various conditions and its performance compared with that of a commercial demulsifier. Locally formulated demulsifier yielded 0.92, 0.22, 1.45, 0.73, 0.52, 0.9, 0.78 and 1.13 ml water separation for heavy crudes at eight varying treatment conditions. The commercial demulsifeier gave 0.47, 0.30, 0.93, 0.30, 0.33, 0.83, 0.25 and 0.6 ml water separation at the same treatment conditions. The mean yield of the new demulsifier at the temperature-additive treatment combination for saline and heavier crudes A2, A4 and A6 gave 1.5, 1.18 and 1.2 against commercial demulsifier which gave 1.4, 0.75 and 0.4. It was concluded that the use of only one variable like chemical concentration, is not enough in assessing the overall effectiveness of a demulsifier for the treatment of crude oil emulsion systems. Key words: Crude oil emulsions, chemical demulsifiers, Niger Delta, ionic compounds.

Oily wastewater causes a lot of environment problems and draws wide attention. In this paper, titanium modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs/TiO2) for the treatment of oily wastewater were s...

Removing the paraffin deposit plugs has always been a technical problem in petroleum production process. In recent years, ultrasonic treatment technique has attracted much attention because of low ...

In view of the serious emulsification existing in Changqing condensate gas emulsion, the unclear oil-water interface and the poor application effect of demulsifier used in the field, it is urgent to study an efficient demulsifier. In this paper, PM and XP-1221 two kinds of demulsifiers are used to solve the emulsification problem. The PM demulsifier was compounded with XP-1221 chemical demulsifier to solve the emulsification problem of Changqing condensate. The effect of temperature and demulsifier concentration on demulsification performance was studied by bottle test method. The results showed that XP-1221 and PM could be effectively combined. The demulsification efficiency was high and the dehydrated water was clear. Studies have shown that XP-1221 has a good synergistic effect with PM. The suitable ratio of the composite demulsifier is 1:1, and the demulsifier effect of the demulsifier can meet the requirements of the oil field demulsifier. The composite demulsifier can meet the requirements of current oilfield demulsifiers.

The article considers the results of the study on the selection of chemical reagents to improve the rheological properties of the oil emulsion of the Kondinskoye oil field during transportation and dehydration of the emulsion. The studies have been carried out on an artificial emulsion. We describe a method of determining demulsifying activity of a reagent at a certain temperature mode of a preliminary water discharge plant. In addition, we give the results of the study with various chemical reagents, select the optimal mode of emulsion preparation. This experiment was conducted in order to select the most effective demulsifiers to improve the technology and economics of the field and transportation process. The optimal choice of type of demulsifier, mode of its application and places of entry guarantee high quality of oil preparation. The following demulsifiers could be used in the process: DE-4, DE-6, and DE-9. The result of using these reagents is an optimal reagent flow rate per ton of fluid and a maximum amount of water separated from the emulsion over a certain time.

Conventional methods of eliminating water from crude oil such as the chemical injection have both economic and environmental impacts; thus, this study proposed an economic and environmentally friendly demulsifier. The bottle test method was used to study the performance of the natural extract and commercial demulsifier on a crude oil sample. The GC-MS profile of the extract was in agreement with previous reports on composition of oil extracted from rice bran using hexane, ultrasound assisted extraction and conventional solvent extraction with ethanol. Varying degrees of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids as well as retention times as observed, was a function of total time of scanning, according to NIST08 library of mass spectra. The performance of the demulsifier was expressed in terms of percentage of water separated from 100 ml samples of the oil samples. For both the demulsifiers, the performance increased with increase in volume of the demulsifier, separation time and operating temperature. The extracted demulsifier performed better than the chemical demulsifier under all the experimental conditions adopted in this study. Based on the parametric evaluation, it was observed the results from software corroborated the results obtained from experiments in terms of the observations of the combined effect of temperature and volume which showed the most significant influence on demulsification of the emulsified crude. The highest efficiency of the bio-demulsifier was obtained with a volume of 5 mL of the extract, at a temperature of 70°C and separation time of 60 min. A water separation efficiency of 85.6% was obtained as compared to the chemical demulsifier, which gave an efficiency of 80.2%.

Breaking water-in-oil emulsions during the refining of crude oils is an important step before any upgrading process is started. Asphaltene molecules are incriminated as playing an important role in this phenomenon. Unraveling the mechanisms behind the affinity between them and water is a key step to understand how to break these emulsions more easily and require lower amounts of demulsifiers. Choosing which demulsifier molecule(s) to use is also primordial, but to do so rationally, one needs to know which are the molecular interactions in place between asphaltenes, porphyrins and water so that demulsifiers are chosen to destabilize a specific physical–chemical interaction. In this paper, we study the interactions arising between asphaltenes and porphyrins and six different molecules potentially displaying a demulsification action in the presence of water/oil interfaces. We demonstrate that the ionic demulsifier molecules present an interesting potential to either interact strongly with water, replacing asphaltenes in this interaction, or to interact with the active sites of asphaltenes, deactivating them and avoiding any asphaltenic interfacial activity. Finally, we also found that although asphaltenes do not migrate spontaneously toward the water/oil interfaces, porphyrins do so rather easily. This indicates that porphyrins do have an important activity at the water/oil interface.

The need for efficient demulsification process to treat emulsions in the petroleum industry is well acknowledged. For decades, numerous researches have been conducted to examine mechanisms of emulsification and demulsification. Untreated emulsion has both technical and commercial implications in the industry, especially in terms of treatment facilities, refining and transportation. Effective treatment is needed to ensure optimum production of hydrocarbons. The present paper is to review reported works on the formation of petroleum emulsions, demulsification treatments, characteristics of fit-for-purpose demulsifiers as well as research trends in emulsion treatment. Crude oils are naturally combined with natural surfactants having high tendency to form stable emulsion. The stable emulsion must be treated well to meet industrial requirements since crudes with a high volume of stable emulsion have a less value. Therefore, fundamental studies on natural surfactants, which contribute to the emulsion stability, are analyzed for the effective separation of emulsions into oil and water. This would involve the assessment of various reported mechanisms for the emulsification and right formulation for effective demulsification.

Chemical demulsification is the most effective, common and the cheapest method to break crude oil emulsion during oil extraction. The chemical demulsification process is related with the natural emulsifier displacement by demulsifier. In this article, a single droplet in situ displacement method was employed to evaluate demulsifier displace capacity and the experimental device was built. This device determines the displacement capacity of demulsifier by measuring the oil-water interfacial tension, demulsifier concentration and saturated adsorption amount of demulsifier. Displacement capacities of four commercially available polyether demulsifiers and the relationship between demulsifier displacement capacity and demulsification performance were investigated. The results showed that the demulsifier displacement capacity was not affected by natural emulsifier type (asphaltene, resin, or mixture of asphaltene) and was related to the demulsifier type, concentration, and temperature. Demulsifier displacement capacity increased with demulsifier concentration and temperature. However, only when the asphaltene concentration of was over 6.78 wt%, the demulsification increased with demulsifier displacement capacity.

Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL), a natural phenolic liquid extracted from locally sourced raw materials, and Phasetreat-4633 (a commercial demulsifier) were diluted with xylene and butanol and used as demulsifiers in the treatment of crude oil emulsions. Laboratory simulated crude oil emulsions dosed with different concentrations of CNSL and PT-4633 were the basis for comparison of demulsifier performance via the bottle test method. Different factors affecting demulsification efficiency such as; water content, demulsifier concentration, and solvent type were investigated at 10%, 30%, and 50% water content. The data obtained showed that the rate of water separation increases with increasing concentration and water content of the demulsifiers and emulsion respectively. Among the demulsifier-solvent combination employed in this study, Phasetreat-4633 in butanol recorded the most efficient water separation with optimal (100%) separation recorded after 5 minutes at 40 ppm and 50 ppm concentration, 50% water content and 60℃. From the obtained results, the investigated demulsifiers have great potential with butanol as a solvent in the resolution of crude oil emulsions in shorter times. This behavior can be attributed to the synergetic effect of butanol as a solvent. Hence, butanol can be regarded as a better solvent substitute to xylene, due to its attributive synergetic effect, low cost and toxicity levels, unlike xylene which is more toxic and expensive.

Crude oil emulsion is an uncontrollable process that mostly happened at the oil rig during drilling or recovery of oil. Emulsion creates problems at the oil refinery and can cause corrosion in the processing equipment and pipeline. Demulsification is a method used to separate water in the crude oil emulsion where the demulsifier can break interfacial surface of the water droplets to coalesce with each other. Chemical demulsifier is conventionally used by industries as it promises good and fast separation in water-in-oil emulsion. However, chemical demulsifiers may increase water toxicity and become harmful to the aquatic lives if discharged to the water resources. Therefore, the use of green demulsifier is important for industries to reduce the impact to environment. The ability of coconut oil and its derivative, coco betaine as green demulsifiers was investigated in the present study. Effects of different parameters such as temperature (25–70 °C), demulsifier dosage (1–4 ml) and ratio of additive-to-demulsifier (0:1, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 1:0) have been studied to examine their impacts on the performance of demulsifiers. Bottle test method was used to analyse the separation of water in crude oil. Results revealed that coco betaine has better performance as a green demulsifier (≈35% of water separation) compared to the coconut oil (

Dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) entrapped and pooled in aquifers serve as a long term source of groundwater contamination because of their low solubility and high density. Density modification displacement (DMD) with colloidal biliquid aphrons (CBLAs) is a promising approach to prevent DNAPL downward migration during surfactant-based remediation processes. CBLA demulsification and quick release of internal light organic matter is the key to density modification of DNAPLs. In this work, it is reported for the first time that polyaluminum chloride (PAC) could destabilize CBLAs efficiently. The optimum conditions for demulsification of CBLAs by PAC were obtained; the effects of several specific ions in groundwater on demulsification of CBLAs by PAC were investigated. The results indicated that the CBLA was completely demulsified by PAC within 10 minutes and released light organic matter. It recorded the highest demulsification efficiency when the addition ratio (VPAC/VCBLA) was 2 : 1, concentration of PAC was 0.7 g L-1 and the PVR of CBLAs was 8. Most cations (sodium, magnesium and calcium ions) had inhibitory effects on demulsification of CBLAs by PAC with increasing ion concentration, but iron ions had no effect on it. Sulfate anions showed a stronger inhibitory effect on demulsification of CBLAs by PAC compared to chloride ions. With PAC as the demulsifier, CBLAs could be demulsified efficiently, irreversibly modifying the density of trichloroethylene in 5 minutes.

To deal with the demulsification of O/W emulsions, a novel kind of core–shell structural amphiphilic soft matter, HPEI-g-Cn (n = 10, 12, 14, 16, 18), with hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (HPEI) as the core and fatty acid chain Cn as the shell, is designed and synthesized. With the existence of amphiphilic HPEI-g-Cn, O/W emulsions can be thoroughly separated into two phases with a clear oil–water interface to reach demulsification equilibrium within 40 min. The oil removal ratio can exceed 99.9% under the addition of 40 ppm in simulative emulsions, and simultaneously the water content in the oil phase is less than 0.01%. This demulsifier can also contribute to excellent separation efficiency (up to 99.9%) for O/W emulsions from two China's oilfields, and even for heavy oil emulsions. More importantly, it is noted that the HPEI-g-Cn demulsifiers after demulsification are evenly and tightly dispersed at the oil–water interface as shown by wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which is beneficial to the subsequent recovery and utilization. With eco-friendly characteristics, outstanding demulsification performance and promising recyclability, the amphiphilic macromolecules HPEI-g-Cn as special soft matter display great promise to achieve industrial applications in the future.

Fracturing fluid is the blood of fracturing construction, which is very important for fracturing, which requires that fracturing fluid needs to have good performance. The three commonly used fracturing fluids for unconventional oil and gas reservoir transformation are: 1) Guar gum fracturing fluid; 2) Water-based emulsion slippery water fracturing fluid; 3) Oil-based emulsion slippery water fracturing fluid. In this paper, water samples and other experimental data provided by Mahu Oilfield are used to evaluate three different fracturing fluid systems in laboratory. The formulas of the three different fracturing fluid systems are: 1) Water-based emulsion slippery water fracturing fluid is clean slippery water fracturing fluid 0.1% JHFR-2D drag reducer + 0.2% JHFD-2 multifunctional additive; 2) Oil-based emulsion slippery water fracturing fluid 0.1% A agent + 0.2% B agent; 3) Guar gum fracturing fluid 0.1% guanidine gum + 0.5% drainage aid + 0.3% demulsifier. The compatibility, drag reduction performance, reservoir damage, residue content, anti-swelling performance, surface interfacial tension, viscosity and other properties of three different slippery water fracturing fluid systems were studied. Through laboratory experiments, the comprehensive indicators show that clean slippery water fracturing fluid has obvious advantages.

A state-of-the-art Portable Dispersion Characterization Rig (P-DCR) is used to generate emulsions with Exxsol mineral oil, commercial distilled water, as well as hydrophilic and hydrophobic silica nanoparticles (NP) as emulsifiers. The emulsion is prepared in the P-DCR batch separator vessel, whereby the separation kinetics are observed and recorded. In this study, two data sets are acquired, as follows: 1) Emulsion stabilization utilizing nanoparticles (Data Set I); and 2) Emulsion break-up using demulsifiers (Data Set II). Data Set I includes experiments conducted with mineral oil and distilled water as test fluids, and spherical silica nanoparticles of 20 nm mean diameter at concentrations of 0.01% and 1% by weight. The emulsions are created at a rotational speed of 600 RPM and at three water-cuts of 25%, 50% and 75%. Data for the hydrophobic particles, dispersed initially in the oil phase, confirm that highest emulsion stability is obtained with 25% water-cut, and only oil creaming occurs, while the emulsion is very resistant to water coalescence and sedimentation. The data also show that the separation rate improves with increasing water-cut to higher values. The second phase of Set I experiments includes the effects of hydrophilic nanoparticles, where the particles are initially dispersed in the water phase. The data demonstrate that in contrast to the hydrophobic particles, fast separation occurs at 25% water-cut, and increasing water-cut resulted to slower oil creaming process. Emulsions with combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles is the last phase of the Data Set I. The data show that similar behavior as hydrophobic particles is observed, which emphasizes the dominant role of the hydrophobic particles as compared to hydrophilic ones. The experimental data for all cases show that increasing particle concentration results in more stable emulsions. The emulsion (base case) break-up using demulsifiers data (Data Set II) are acquired with 25% water-cut and 0.01% w/w hydrophobic NP utilizing 3 commercial demulsifiers, namely, ALKEN 860, ALKEN 862 and DB 964 with concentrations of 100, 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 ppm. It is evident that the different chemical compositions of the demulsifiers produce different separation behavior. In general, an increase of the demulsifier concentration leads to an improvement of the emulsion separation. The recommended demulsifier for break-up of the base case emulsion is ALKEN 862 with a concentration of 500 ppm, which results in a fast and almost complete separation.

Objectives/Scope Selection of "first fill" demulsifiers for new, undeveloped, oil fields has significant limitations, typically relying on data from test work with synthetic emulsion created in a laboratory using highly contaminated drilling samples of crude oil. Additional separation challenges related to offshore production of high viscosity, low API crude oil, from a low temperature reservoir results in a low probability of success in selecting a suitable first fill demulsifier using the traditional bottle test alone. Methods, Procedures, Process To give improved speed of oil/water separation, water quality, interface quality and top oil dehydration, samples of chemical free oil and produced water were used to screen alternative existing products against the base case demulsifier via bottle testing. The emulsions were created using a high shear stirrer to mimic the system conditions of the wells coming online and water droplet size within the emulsion was determined via cross polarizing thermal microscopy. For the purposes of these tests, demulsifier performance was ranked on speed and completeness of separation, interface quality, water quality and grind out (BS&W) characteristics. Results, Observations, Conclusions Several differences were observed between the initial and subsequent test work. The low shear emulsion created in the early work was found to be very unstable, separating easily with no residual emulsion in the crude oil. The emulsion created under high shear conditions gave a much closer correlation in terms of water droplet distribution to that measured during the field test and resulted in a much more stable emulsion that was more difficult to separate and typically left unresolved emulsion in the oil after the bulk of the water had separated. Whilst the original demulsifier recommendation was still able to facilitate separation it was found that it was no longer the optimum product, with other previously disregarded products able to provide a higher level of performance on the high shear emulsion. Novel/Additive Information This paper demonstrates that a higher level of performance was achieved with an enhanced screening process, namely through high shear stirring and confirmation of water droplet size within the emulsion. When added to the standard bottle testing conditions, the development of demulsifiers can better ensure an optimum result, fit for purpose for the application.