Investigation of water separation property of a new green demulsifier

In petroleum industry, there is an ever growing need to restrict the use of hazardous, toxic materials and replace them with more environmentally friendly materials. Water-in-crude oil emulsions, constituting about 60% of petroleum production of every oil field, are one of the major problems in this industry. The implementation of chemical demulsification as a part of any crude oil desalination process is inevitable. In this study, Water separation property of an environmentally friendly surfactant (ADAOA) was investigated by using synthetic water in crude oil emulsions with different water cut and temperature. Interfacial tension (IFT) reduction property of the surfactant was studied experimentally. At 25 °C, ADAOA surfactant having a critical micelle concentration value of about 8000 ppm can reduce the IFT of the distilled water/ kerosene system from about 32.47 dyne/cm to 21.39 dyne/cm. Also, demulsification tests showed a relatively satisfactory result of 86% water separation at 60 °C.

کلیدواژه ها:

environmentally friendly ، surfactant ، demulsification ، crude oil emulsion ، water separation ، IFT