Stability of w/o emulsions for MgSO₄ and Na₂CO₃ solutions under dynamic and static conditions

Abstract

Emulsions are widely used in various sectors of the oil industry. They can spontaneously be formed during drilling, production, transportation, and oil separation processes. The stability of these emulsions is closely related to species such as asphaltene and resin at the water/oil interface. In this study, emulsion stability was studied at static and dynamic conditions where w/o emulsions were prepared using different concentrations of MgSO4 and Na2CO3 solutions. The optimum concentration of MgSO4 and Na2CO3 solutions was then obtained by microscopic imaging of the samples and analyzing through the ImageJ software. Once the optimum concentrations was established, the stability of emulsions were examined in a 10‐day time period. Emulsion stability at dynamic condition was also examined through injecting the optimum aqueous solutions into a micromodel. Based on these findings, 50 000 ppm and 60 000 ppm were identified as optimum concentrations for the formation of stable w/o emulsions for MgSO4 and Na2O3, respectively. Asphaltene also showed distinct behaviour with pH in which higher polarization was observed for basic solutions. According to this finding, more stable emulsions have been observed in the optimum solution of MgSO4 (in comparison with the Na2O3 solution) under static and dynamic conditions.

Experimental methods in chemical engineering: pH

“…The topics include diethylenetriamine as a selective pyrrhotite depressant, [ 64 ] pitting mechanisms of Zn‐Ni alloy coating, [ 65 ] and water/oil emulsion stability. [ 66 ] To better identify relationships between diverse areas of research like these, we applied the program VOSViewer to generate a bibliometric map of the 100 most frequently cited keywords (Figure 4). The program establishes the distance between the keywords based on co‐occurrences and groups them into clusters.…”

Mini-Review on Water–Oil Emulsions through Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation

“…Surfactants are divided into categories such as anionic (e.g., carboxylate or sulfonate), cationic (e.g., quaternary ammonium salt), Zwitterionic (contain both charges simultaneously), and nonionic (e.g., polyoxyethylenated alcohol), in which each type has its own utilization and functionality . Natural surfactants can be also present in different forms, such as those in crude oil, in which natural carboxylic acids, − or macro-molecules (e.g., asphaltenes), − and solid particles (inorganic and organic particles), − can be present.…”