Development of New "green" Demulsifiers for Oil Production

Abstract

Abstract There is an increasing need in the oil production to limit the use of chemicals and to search for safer products, mainly due to more severe environmental constraints. Demulsifiers performance has to be therefore improved, from the application as well as from the environmental point of view. New formulations must be less toxic and at least as efficient as classical chemical families, which contain toxic molecules like phenol groups. A methodology was developed to screen the main chemical families used as demulsifiers. Effective separation ability of different surfactants was first evaluated according to the classical " bottle test". From this preliminary screening, some silicone derivatives appeared to be efficient on several crude oil emulsion types and were therefore studied more intensively. A specific methodology was used, including turbidimetric measurements with a vertical scanner to quantify water and oil separation kinetics and also the quality of the separated water. Finally, silicone chemicals were found to exhibit very interesting performances and could be used as "green" demulsifiers in oil production.