Experimental Assessment of Local Demulsifiers for Crude Oil Emulsion Breaking: A Study on Jatropha curcas, Indigenous Materials, and their Blends

Abstract

Crude oil emulsion is one of the most challenging problems plaguing the phases of oil and gas production. Crude oil emulsion stability causes high viscosity of crude oil which leads to challenges in pipeline transportation and processing. This paper investigated the effectiveness of locally sourced material as a demulsifier, where the stability crude oil emulsion of varying viscosity by using three different formulated local demulsifiers such as Jatropha curcas extract, local materials, and their blends were investigated. The laboratory experiment was carried out using Crude oil I, II and III, blend of Jatrophas curcas and local materials into Sample A (100% Jatropha curcas extract), B (6:4), C (1:1), D (4:6), E (3:7), F (2:8),  and G (100% local materials), at 60, 90, 120, 180, 240. 300, 360, 420 and 480 mins. The result generally showed that the lower the viscosity of crude oil the higher the water recovery (WR). Also, the demusifier blends had better WR when compared to without blends. Irrespective of the type of crude oil, demulsifier blends of equal ratio 1:1, 4:6, and 3:7 % led to maximum WR. For crude oil I, without delmusifier achieved 5.4 % WR, while Sample A had 86 % 77 % WR for Sample G at constant time of 480 mins, and 100 % WR for Sample D but at 36mins. Crude oil II, had WR of 4.0% at 480mins without demulsifier, Sample A, B, and D had water recovery of 79%, 72%, and 100% at 480 mins, respectively. Lower recoveries were observed for crude III majorly due to its higher viscous nature, as all samples had WR between 48.2 and 75%. This study has demonstrated that blend of locally formulated demulsifiers had better water separation capability.