Article
Energy & Fuels
Zuoli Li, Jessica Fuentes, Anirban Chakraborty, Edgar Zamora, Vinay Prasad, Flavio Vazquez, Zhenghe Xu, Qingxia Liu, Cesar Flores, William C. McCaffrey
Summary: This study correlates the viscoelastic properties with crude oil dehydration and reveals that the asphaltene content influences film rigidity, and the type of demulsifier and temperature affect the change in elastic modulus. A dynamic model for water removal based on elastic modulus was developed, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the dehydration process.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Yangang Bi, Wusong Li, Congcong Liu, Zhi Tan, Zhantao Wang, Xiangchen Liu, Guofeng Wang, Xinru Jia
Summary: Two star-shaped quaternary ammonium compounds with melamine as the hydrophobic core showed higher demulsification efficiency in breaking polymer flooding oil-in-water emulsions, potentially due to electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hamed Sadighian, Zahra Mohamadnia, Ebrahim Ahmadi
Summary: Emulsions formed by water in crude oil need to be broken before refining processes. Novel derivatives of imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) containing triazole moiety [SIm-TazCn][Br] were synthesized and grafted onto cellulose (CEL) to prepare eco-friendly demulsifiers for breaking water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions. The CEL[SIm-TazC6][Br] derivative showed a good dehydration efficiency (DE) of 79% at 4000 ppm after 5 min, which increased to 82% after 24 h. The interfacial tension (IFT) of CEL[SIm-TazC6][Br] with a shorter alkyl chain at 4000 ppm after 24 h was measured to be the minimum value of 16.3 mN/m.
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Hamed Sadighian, Ebrahim Ahmadi, Zahra Mohamadnia
Summary: The separation of water and oil from water-in-oil emulsion is crucial for its transportation and refining. Ionic liquids and their derivatives have been studied as effective agents for breaking emulsions. In this study, microcrystalline cellulose grafted with imidazolium-based ionic liquids (MCC@IM-ILs) was synthesized and evaluated as eco-friendly surface-active agents for water separation from crude oil. The structure of the synthesized compounds was confirmed through various characterization techniques. MCC@IM-ILs showed acceptable dehydration efficiency to demulsify different water-in-oil emulsions. The concentration, alkyl chain length, and counter-anion of MCC@IM-ILs played a key role in the separation process.
CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ke Wang, Enhui Ma, Haohao Cui, Hong Wang
Summary: Self-propelled amphiphilic micromotors were developed as active demulsifiers for efficient oil/water separation. The micromotors can push oil droplets away from the aqueous phase and aggregate them to form an oil layer, achieving rapid oil-water separation.
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Li Gong, Hongxia Zhu, Wenhao Wu, Daohui Lin, Kun Yang
Summary: A novel material named SHMP-1@Sponge with superhydrophobic/superoleophilic properties has been developed for efficient oil/water separation in realistic aquatic environments. The material shows high absorption capacity and durability, making it promising for practical applications.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jianbin Liu, Liguo Zhong, Tongchun Hao, Lei Ren, Yigang Liu
Summary: Water flooding followed by emulsification system flooding is an effective method for enhancing heavy oil recovery. In this study, a collaborative emulsification system was developed and optimized to form stable and smaller oil-in-water emulsions. The system significantly reduces interfacial tension and additional resistance in reservoir porous media, resulting in improved heavy oil recovery. The developed collaborative emulsification system shows great potential for enhancing heavy oil recovery after water/hot water flooding.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jianguang Wei, Xiaofeng Zhou, Xuedong Shi, Pengqi Gong, Yinghe Chen, Yue Wang, Ping Fu, V. S. Yakushev, M. P. Khaidina, Dong Zhang, Runnan Zhou
Summary: An oilfield has been developed with waterflooding for a long time, and the water cut has reached a high level. The feasibility of using surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique in this oilfield is determined through microscopic oil displacement experiments and observation of the remaining oil distribution after waterflooding and SP flooding. The results show that SP flooding has a much lower contribution limit of pore and throat diameter than waterflooding, indicating its effectiveness in improving sweep efficiency. The efficacy of SP flooding is proved, and a microscopic explanation of remaining oil distribution is provided.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Ketao Yan, Jinfu Chen, Liu He, Weijie Dai
Summary: The study revealed that suspended microcrystalline polymer flooding produced water has unique characteristics in terms of oil droplet diameter distribution, viscosity, and absolute zeta potential. The oil removal rate through gravity sedimentation was found to be higher compared to polymer-flooding produced water and slightly lower than high Ca and Mg polymer flooding produced water. A two-stage composite material filtration combined with gravity sedimentation was proposed as an effective and practical method for oil removal from suspended microcrystalline polymer flooding produced water based on laboratory experiments.
JOURNAL OF WATER PROCESS ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Edgar B. Zamora, Edgar Hernandez, Gerardo Zavala, Jessica Fuentes, Fernando Alvarez, Cesar A. Flores, Flavio Vazquez
Summary: A series of novel random alkyl acrylic-amino alkyl acrylic bipolymers were synthesized and evaluated as demulsifiers in heavy crude oils, showing that their efficiency depends on the ratio of alkyl acrylic/amino alkyl acrylic and average molecular mass. High content of the amino alkyl acrylate monomer and higher molecular mass resulted in better emulsion removal efficiencies and water clarification in heavy crude oils.
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Jianfei Wu, Ziwei Cui, Yuxuan Su, Yang Yu, Bo Yue, Jundie Hu, Jiafu Qu, Dan Tian, Xianxu Zhan, Jianzhang Li, Yahui Cai
Summary: The massive discharge of oily wastewater and oil spills are causing serious pollution to water resources. It is urgent to require clean and efficient method of purifying oily emulsions. Although the separation membranes with selective wettability have been widely used in the efficient purification of oil/water emulsions, it is still very challenging to develop functional films that are environmentally friendly, fouling resistant, inexpensive, easy to prepare, easy to scale, and highly efficient.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Rohit Kumar Saw, Anshuman Singh, Neetish Kumar Maurya, Ajay Mandal
Summary: Low salinity water flooding is cost-effective and environmentally friendly, and the addition of nanoparticles and polymers can significantly increase oil recovery. The viscosity of complex chemical slugs can be increased by adding nanoparticles to polymer solutions. Low salinity water requires a lower concentration of polymer to reach the target viscosity compared to high saline formation water. The addition of nanoparticles reduces interfacial tension and contact angle, leading to higher oil recovery in low salinity water. Injection of low salinity water-based complex fluid results in incremental recovery of OOIP compared to low salinity water and conventional formation water flooding.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Abdelrahman O. Ezzat, Ahmed M. Tawfeek, Hamad A. Al-Lohedan
Summary: The study aimed to prepare and evaluate the demulsification efficiency of two gemini pyridinium surfactant ILs, with TEGP IL showing higher ability to reduce surface tension and interfacial tension. Both surfactants were successfully applied as demulsifiers for W/O emulsions, achieving 100% demulsification at low concentrations for some compositions, with higher activity observed for TEGP IL than MEGPy surfactant.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xiaoqin Zhang, Bo Li, Feng Pan, Xin Su, Yujun Feng
Summary: This study compared the adaptability of a thermoviscosifying polymer (TVP) with HPAM for chemical EOR in low-permeability oil reservoirs. Results showed that TVP exhibited higher viscosity, thermal stability, and incremental oil recovery compared to HPAM, indicating its potential use in such reservoirs.
Article
Polymer Science
Mamdouh T. Ghannam, Mohamed Y. E. Selim, Abdulrazag Y. Zekri, Nabil Esmail
Summary: This study investigated the viscoelastic behavior of crude oil-Xanthan gum emulsions through Creep-recovery examinations. The experimental measurements and analysis showed that the linear viscoelastic range of the emulsions was up to 1 Pa, and the compliance decreased with higher concentrations.