Experimental study of Crude Oil demulsification by Demulsifier and process modeling by modification of Collision Frequency Function in Population Balance Equation

The main purpose of this research is experimental and theoretical study on demulsifying components effect on demulsification rate of water-in-oil emulsions. In other words, some surfactants is considered and their function as a demulsifier in breaking crude oil emulsions has been investigated by bottle test. To develop a theoretical model to take into account the effect of demulsifier agent on demulsification rate of water-in-oil emulsion. Considering similarity between gas adsorption, and agent adsorption on the water-oil interface, a Langmuir isotherm based model is developed to correlate interfacial tension of water and oil phases to demulsifier concentration. Based on the proposed correlation, the collision frequency function in population balance equation is modified to account the effect of demulsifier agent on water droplets coalescence. The proposed model consists of some adjustable parameters that need to be fitted with experimental data. Therefore, a group of surface-active compounds are supplied and their demulsification capability is investigated through bottle test method. The experimental demulsification results are compared with population balance simulation results and it is apperared that the developed model could appropriately reproduce experimental data at different agent concentrations.