COMPARISON OF IMPORTED AND LOCALLY MADE DEMULSIFIERS ON ESCRAVOS CRUDE OIL EMULSION

Abstract

Emulsion of oil and water is one of many problems encountered in the petroleum industry, in both oil-field
production and refinery operations. It is important to develop the demulsifier formulation to solve the emulsion
problems. This work focused on a comparison of the effectiveness of both the imported and locally made
demulsifiers. This test was carried out using the bottle test and the Basic Sediment and Water (BS&W) test which
is based on the use of centrifuge at various concentrations and temperatures. The effectiveness of the demulsifiers
were evaluated by measuring the water and oil levels. Other tests carried out include, the determination of salt
content, and total hydrocarbon content of the effluent after water separation. Test analysis showed that the water
separation efficiency increased with time for both the imported (D2005 and PT) and the locally made (Daf360)
demulsifiers with a maximum separation obtained after 30 minutes. Maximum separation efficiency of 18% was
obtained at a dosage of 20ppm for Daf360. It was observed that the water separation efficiency increased with
temperature with a maximum obtained at 65 0C and with time. The maximum amount of water removed was 18%,
10% and 2% respectively for Daf360, D2005 and PT. It was also observed that water separation efficiency
increased with decreasing salt content for Daf360 sample. The salt content was 9.6 Lbs/1000bbl compared to a
content of 26.8 Lbs/1000bbl for D2005. The total hydrocarbon content for the sample treated with Daf360 was
127.89mg/l while that treated with D2005 was 80.82mg/l and that treated with PT was 84.35mg/l. The locally
made demulsifier, Daf360 gave very promising results hence, there are prospects for the use of the locally made
demulsifier which economically may be worthwhile on the long run due to foreign exchange savings.