Comprehensive demetallization of crude oil using spherical polyelectrolyte brushes with submicron polybutadiene latex as a core

Abstract

AbstractStable oil‐soluble metals complexes in crude oil bring various problems to the oil processing. In the previous work, four spherical polymer brushes with SiO2 as a core showed high nickel and calcium removal efficiency, but SiO2 has high density and smaller specific surface area, greatly limiting the demetallization efficiency. In the present work, spherical polyelectrolyte brushes (PAA@PB) were synthesized by emulsion grafting polymerization. DLS and TEM show that PAA@PB exhibits a uniform spherical core‐shell structure with a diameter of 526.3 nm, and TGA exhibits that the grafting rate is 20.6%. The demetallization rate and selectivity of PAA@PB were investigated with varying concentration, electrical desalination conditions, pH value, and NaCl concentration. In contrast, the demetallization efficiency of PAA@PB is much greater than that of PAA@SiO2‐G. Notably, PAA@PB exhibits excellent nickel removal efficiency, but a little more selective for iron. The optimal removal rate for calcium, nickel, and iron are 55.3%, 52.6%, and 46.1%, respectively. Compared with P4VP@SiO2‐G, which possesses the highest demetallization efficiency among four polymer brushes with SiO2, to achieve the same nickel removal rate, the concentration of PAA@PB is almost eight times less than that of P4VP@SiO2‐G. Consequently, PAA@PB has great potential as an excellent comprehensive demetallization agent.