PLURONIC x TETRONIC polyols:study of their properties and performance in the destabilization of emulsions formed in the petroleum industry

摘要

In this work,a new family of branched poly(ethylene oxide-propylene oxide) (PEO-PPO0 block copolymers designed as TETRONIC polyols is evaluated and compared to linear PEO-PPO block copolymers designed as PLURONIC polyols.Additives have been employed as well in order to improve solubility of these materials in aqueous solution.Such additives include the sodium p-toluene sulfonateE (NaPTS) hydrotrope and concentrated hydrochloric acid.Solubility tests and aqueous solution surface tension data showed consitent results:the structure of the block PEO-PPO copolymers exerts a huge influence on their solubility in water.The solubility of such copolymers is increased by the presence of the sodium toluene sulfonate (NaPTS) hydrotrope.The presence of HCl caused increased solubility for the copolymer TETRONIC polyol only,the effect being less than that observed for the hydrotrope.It is concluded that as regards emulsion stabilization.TETROIC copolymer polyols perform better.Correlation between structure and properties leads to the optimization of block PEO-PPO copolymer selection aiming at using these materials for the separation of petroleum industry emulsions.