Dense Packed Layer Modeling in Oil-Water Dispersions: Model Description, Experimental Verification, and Code Demonstration

Panjwani, Balram; Amiri, Asal; Mo, Sjur; Fossen, Martin; Linga, Harald; Pauchard, Vincent

doi:10.1080/01932691.2014.1003221

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…According to the measured water content, the highest water content in the W/O emulsion phase appears to be at the emulsion interface. Such a phenomenon indicates that, instead of merging into the W/O emulsion phase, the dispersed oil droplets form a dense packed zone below the emulsion interface due to the difference between sedimentation rate and interfacial coalescence rate . The accumulation of oil droplets in the dense packed zone induced by the density difference changes the WOR and then leads to a catastrophic phase inversion. , Both high viscosity and the surface-active components make the sedimentation of water droplets in the newly formed W/O emulsion very slow.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The bottle test, because of its operational simplicity, is generally conducted to evaluate the stability of different dispersion systems and monitor the demulsification process by measuring the volume of separated phases. − Hartland and Jeelani developed a series of empirical formulas to predict the heights of the dense packed zone and the sedimentation zone at which the emulsion phase is located after dividing a demulsifying liquid–liquid dispersion system at atmospheric conditions into four parts: (1) a lighter pure phase, (2) a sedimentation zone, (3) a dense packed zone, and (4) a heavier pure phase. By measuring water cut at the oil and water outlets of a horizontal separator, Panjwani et al simulated the coalescence behavior in an inversed dense packed zone by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Sheng found that during chemical flooding the type of emulsion also depends on the water–oil ratio (WOR).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Population Balance Model for Emulsion Behavior of Alkaline Water–Heavy Oil Systems in Bulk Phase

Zhao

Jia

et al. 2021

Energy Fuels

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Experimental and theoretical techniques have been developed to quantify the behavior of alkaline water−heavy oil emulsion systems at high pressures and elevated temperatures. Experimentally, initial emulsions were prepared by agitating either sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) solution or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution with heavy oil samples inside a visualized PVT cell. After being settled for a certain period of time, the phase volume of the in situ generated water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion was monitored, and the local water content distribution within each dual-emulsion system was measured. Experiments with the same composition and mixing condition, but with different settling times, were conducted to track the continuous water content distribution. Mathematically, two groups of population balance equations (PBEs) were modified and applied to quantify the phase behavior during the emulsion destabilization process with the consideration of coalescence, settling, and diffusion of the dispersed droplets as well as the mass transfer between emulsion phases. To quantify the mass transfer between the W/O and oil-in-water (O/ W) emulsion phases, the measured emulsion inversion point (EIP) was used as the interface boundary condition of the dualemulsion systems. Both the fixed-pivot technique and a semi-implicit finite difference approach were applied for discretizing the internal coordinate (droplet volume) and the external coordinates in time and space domains, respectively. By assuming the dispersed droplets as a log-normal distribution, the genetic algorithm (GA) was applied to optimize the coalescence efficiency by using the experimental measurements as well as the water droplet distribution in the W/O emulsion phase. Because of the corresponding changes of oil viscosity and interfacial tension (IFT), either an increase in temperature or a decrease in pressure leads to a smaller EIP and higher coalescence efficiency. As a weak alkali, Na 2 CO 3 facilitates the stabilization of the emulsion and inhibits the influence of higher temperatures, while NaOH solution−heavy oil systems achieve emulsion inversion more easily.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%