Synthesis and evaluation of some modified polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene block polymer as water-in-oil emulsion breakers

摘要

This article mainly concentrates on synthesis of five novel demulsifiers. The demulsifiers were prepared in two steps; the first was carried out by reaction between oleic acid and maleic anhydride to form oleic acid-maleic anhydride adduct OM and the second step was carried out by reaction of OM with polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene block polymers with M.wts.; 3 x 10(3), 4 x 3 10(3), and 5 x 3 10(3) (BP3, BP4, and BP5 respectively) to produce the following compounds; ([OMBP3], [OMBP4], and [OMBP5], respectively). The OM adduct was reacted with [BP4] in presence of lauryl alcohol ( LA) and triethylenetetramine ( TETA) to produce [(OMBP4)LA] and [(OMBP4)-TETA], respectively. The demulsification efficiency of these demulsifiers was tested on water-in-oil emulsions (w/o) at 10, 30, 50% water content. From the obtained results, it has been found that, the investigated demulsifiers have a great potential to complete resolving the w/o emulsions in short times. The results were compared with the existing demulsifier formulation (nonyl phenol formaldehyde resin), which currently used today in petroleum fields. The data, showed that, the demulsification efficiency of the undertaken demulsifier mixtures are better than the currently used demulsifier. The results were discussed on the light of demulsifier structures and crude oil composition.