The main objective of this work is to investigate the effect of a set of crude oil emulsion variables, including
pH and salt and water contents, upon the microwave demulsification process. A series of batch demulsification
runs were carried out to evaluate the final emulsified water content of emulsion samples after the exposure to
microwaves. Tests were performed at distinct heating temperatures, using water-in-heavy crude oil emulsion
samples containing different salt and water contents and pH. Well-defined temperature programs were established
to control the amount of energy applied to the emulsion and, ultimately, the viscosity. Higher microwave
demulsification efficiencies were achieved for emulsions containing high water contents, except when high
pH and salt contents were simultaneously involved.
The main objective of this work is evaluating the influence of water content and average droplet size upon the near-infrared (NIR) spectra collected during water-in-crude oil emulsions synthesis and observing whether NIR spectroscopy may be used for predicting these properties simultaneously. It is shown that NIR spectra are sensitive to changes of the water content and average droplet size and that standard empirical models [partial least-squares (PLS)] may be built to correlate these properties and total absorbance at the NIR region properly. Finally, it is shown that these models, built with off-line experiments, allow for the online evaluation of average droplet size and water content in water-in-crude oil emulsions with NIR spectroscopy when low water content (<5 wt %) is involved.
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