Microwave Separation of Water-In-Crude Oil Emulsions

Formation of emulsions during oil production is a costly problem, both in terms of chemicals used and due to production losses. For economic purpose, pipeline consideration and for efficient refinery operations, the produced emulsions must dewatered and necessary to separate the water completely from the crude oils before transporting them. The objectives of this study was to study crude oil emulsions stability using different volume ratio of water-oil and different types of crude oils as well as to examine the performance of microwave application in demulsification of water-in-crude oil emulsions in comparison to the conventional methods. Two types of crude oils with three volume ratios of water-oil 50-50%, 30-70% and 20-80% (w/o) were used and a type of surfactant was SDDS. Two different microwave powers of 180 watt and 720 watt were used. This study revealed that the stability of the water-in-oil emulsion stabilized by ionic surfactant increases as the surfactant concentration increased. Increasing the oil content of the emulsion resulted in increased emulsion stability. In terms of demulsification, microwave heating technology can be an alternative method for breaking water-oil emulsion. Microwave heating technology does not required chemical addition.