Abstract
In the last few decades, there has been an increasing trend for the usage of natural products and their derivatives as green and renewable oil-filed chemicals. Use of these compounds or their derivatives contributes to reducing the use of traditional chemicals, and enhances green chemistry principles. Curcumin (CRC) is one of the most popular natural products and is widely available. The green character, antioxidant action, and low cost of CRC prompt its use in several applications. In the present study, Curcumin was used to synthesize two new amphiphilic ionic liquids (AILs) by reacting with 1,3-propanesultone or bromoacetic acid to produce corresponding sulfonic and carboxylic acids, CRC-PS and CRC-BA, respectively. Following this, the formed CRC-PS and CRC-BA were allowed to react with 12-(2-hydroxyethyl)-15-(4-nonylphenoxy)-3,6,9-trioxa-12-azapentadecane-1,14-diol (HNTA) to form corresponding AILs, GCP-IL and GRB-IL, respectively. The chemical structures, surface tension, interfacial tension, and relative solubility number (RSN) of the synthesized AILs were investigated. The efficiency of GCP-IL and GRB-IL to demulsify water in heavy crude oil (W/O) emulsions was also investigated, where we observed that both GCP-IL and GRB-IL served as high-efficiency demulsifiers and the efficiency increased with a decreased ratio of water in W/O emulsion. Moreover, the data showed an increased efficiency of these AILs with an increased concentration. Among the two AILs, under testing conditions, GCP-IL exhibited a higher efficiency, shorter demulsification time, and cleaner demulsified water.
Highlights
The production of crude oil from reservoirs in emulsion form faces obstacles in terms of its storage, transportation, and refining
This study focused on the use of curcumin as a widely available and low-cost raw material for the synthesis of new amphiphilic ionic liquids (AILs) in a short route, which will be reflected in the final cost of the prepared AILs
Two new curcumin-AILs were synthesized through the following steps: (1) the reaction of CRC with 1,3-propanesultone or bromoacetic acid to produce corresponding sulfonic and carboxylic acids, CRC-PS and CRC-BA, respectively; (2) the reaction of the formed CRC-PS and CRC-BA with HNTA to form corresponding AILs, GCP-ionic liquids (ILs) and GRB-IL, respectively
Summary
The production of crude oil from reservoirs in emulsion form faces obstacles in terms of its storage, transportation, and refining. The presence of brine in these emulsions causes different operational problems, including corrosion of storage tanks and transportation pipelines, an increase in crude oil viscosity, and poisoning of refining catalysts [1,2]. The produced emulsions should be treated to remove brine prior to the transportation or storage process, and many different physicochemical, biological, and mechanical techniques are applied towards the demulsification of crude oil emulsions. The different chemicals applied as the demulsifiers include alkylphenols, ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide copolymers, ionic liquids (ILs), poly (ionic liquids), diepoxides, and polyesters [4,5,6,7]. The demulsification process requires amphiphilic ILs that are able to diffuse in crude oil and water, and for the designing of task-specific ILs, a variety of organic cations and anions are used [12]
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