Abstract
The complicated nature of crude oil emulsions is part of the major setbacks associated with the postulation of methods for phase separation and demulsification in the oil industry. Despite the increasing efforts in generating efficient and dependable demulsification methods, the majority of emulsions cannot be shattered in reduced times. This review examines the trending techniques of crude oil demulsification in the petroleum industry. Several approaches have been examined to discover the best method of demulsification. Hence, this reports reviewed the past studies on the emulsion, formation of oil emulsions, methods of demulsification, characteristics of demulsifier, mechanism of demulsification, kinetics in demulsification, operating parameters influencing the demulsification processes, the structure of demulsifier, and formulations that are involved in the demulsification. The formulations of crude oil demulsification have been investigated to unveil adequate demulsifiers for crude oil. Therefore, demulsification approaches have several applications due to wider varieties of crude oil, separation equipment, brines, chemical demulsifiers, the method in which demulsifiers is been formulated, and product specifications.
Highlights
Emulsions of crude oil-in-water are very difficult to handle due to the fact they stabilize through different surface-active materials that occur naturally, these include asphaltenes and resins [1, 21]
The complicated nature of crude oil emulsion is part of the major setbacks associated with the postulation of methods for phase separation and demulsification in the oil industry
The presence of massive droplets in crude oil emulsions frequently results in diminished flow velocity, enhancing the utilization of gravitational forces to separate small suspended droplets, water and oil; which generally occur within a space of time in the separator or large-volume desalters [22, 54]
Summary
Emulsions of crude oil-in-water are very difficult to handle due to the fact they stabilize through different surface-active materials that occur naturally, these include asphaltenes and resins [1, 21]. The contact between water and oil with adequate mixing in the presence of emulsifier or emulsifying agent generate crude oil emulsions. Mixing is inversely proportional to the distributed water droplets in the crude oil and emulsion tighter [1, 53]. 1 3 a short time, the emulsion can break up to form the initial phases (oil and water) This might be because of increased interfacial tensions between oil and water [56]. Crude oil emulsion maintains its stability using resins and asphaltenes that are partially soluble and possess a stronger potential of migrating to sediment between the interface of an oil phase and water droplet [28]
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