Emulsion In Oil Industry

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Customarily, during production operations, emulsified water is present in crude oil as a result of the mixing encountered at numerous stages such as processing, transporting, drilling, and producing of crude oil. Nonetheless, the formation of emulsion leads problems in the oil field industry which may increase the cost of transportation as well as the production. At the same time, it might also accumulate in the refinery tank age, plugged pipeline, equipment failure, and pipeline corrosion. Intended for economic and operational reasons, before refining and transporting it is necessary to remove water completely from the crude oil emulsion. The emulsions have to be broken and demulsify in order to separate the water content of the produced crude …show more content…

This emulsion breaking is necessary in many practical applications in waste water treatment, environmental technology and petroleum industry. From the presence of interfacial barrier preventing coalescence of the dispersed water droplets, the emulsion stability occurs and the most effective method to overcome this problem is to demulsify the crude by using demulsifiers, chemicals designed to neutralize the stabilizing effect of emulsifying agents. When these surface-active compounds are added to the emulsion, they rupture or weaken the rigid film, enhance water droplet coalescence and migrate to the oil/water …show more content…

Propylene oxide decreases water solubility while the addition of ethylene oxide increases it.
Demulsifier chemicals contain the following components such solvents, surface-active ingredients and flocculants. Solvents, such as benzene, toluene, xylene, short-chain alcohols, and heavy aromatic naptha, are generally carriers for the active ingredients of the demulsifier. Surface-active ingredients are chemicals that have surface-active properties characterized by hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) values. Flocculants are chemicals that flocculate the water droplets and facilitate

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