An integrated simulation approach for demulsification of water-in-oil emulsions by medium coalescence

Abstract

Medium coalescence, as a low energy consumption demulsification method, has been widely applied in many industries. During the water-in- oil emulsions flowing through medium bed, the dispersed water droplets not only collide and aggregate with each other, but also deposit and wet on the hydrophilic medium surface. Moreover, the formed large droplets may also breakup into small ones by the turbulent flow or the tiny fibers. Thus, an integrated approach is needed to predict the demulsification performance of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion by medium coalescence. In this work, the population balance model (PBM) with considering Boltzmann motion and differential settlement was used to predict suspension droplets aggregation. The interaction between dispersed droplets and medium bed was calculated by a modified deposition model. Moreover, a published breakage model was selected to simulate the complex droplet breakage process. Then, the demulsification performance of W/O emulsion can be obtained by the variation of droplet size profile. To verify the integrated simulation approach, the existing experimental datasets were compared with the simulation results. After that, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to study parameters that affect the demulsification performance, such as flow velocity, capillary size, and continuous viscosity. The integrated approach proposed in this paper fills in the blank of the demulsification simulation of W/O emulsion by medium coalescence. It provides an in-depth understanding of the relationship between droplets behaviors and medium coalescence performance.