Formulation of Demulsifying Agent for Water in Oil Emulsion Treatment

Abstract

The production of crude oil along with water has been a primary problem in the petroleum industry . In this work, an emulsion breaking chemical (LFD) was formulated from locally sourced materials and experimentally compared with an imported commercially available demulsifier (sulphuric acid) to determine its effectiveness in crude emulsion resolution. Materials used are Castor oil, locally made liquid soap, Camphor, Alum, Cassava Starch and distilled water. It was tested on a crude oil emulsion sample from the Niger Delta field at a temperature of 85 o f, under the same experimental condition with the imported commercially available demulsifier (sulphuric acid) as the control. The percentage volume of water separated by the locally formulated demulsifier (LFD) was 93.33% while the separated percentage volume of water by commercially available demulsifier (sulphuric acid) was 69.33%. This clearly showed that the locally formulated demulsifier had a better performance in terms of emulsion resolution than the commercially available imported demulsifier (sulphuric acid).