Study the Breaking of Water in Crude Oil Emulsions. Influence of Water-Oil Ratio on Demulsifier Action.(Abstract)

摘要

Water is produced with crude oil in most cases. The shear produced by pumping the water-crude mixture through pipes, elbows, tees, valves and other restrictions, generally results in the formation of a water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, which is stabilized by natural surfactants, mostly asphaltenes. This emulsion is most of the time broken at the production facility in a process generally referred to as dehydration, which consists in adding a demulsifier and to submit the emulsion to a physical treatment to promote and speed up settling and phase separation. From the practical point of view the emulsion stability phenomenology has been related not only to formulation but also to composition, i.e., the relative amount of oil, water and surfactant in the simplest case. The most significant composition variable has been found to be the water-oil ratio (WOR), and consequently, the type and stability of the emulsion has been often reported on a formulation-WOR bidimensional map.