Breaking water-in-crude oil emulsions by novel demulsifiers based on maleic anhydride-oleic acid adduct

Abstract

This paper mainly concentrates on synthesis of ten novel demulsifiers and investigate their demulsification efficiency. The demulsifiers were derived from oleic acid-maleic anhydride adduct (OM), which prepared by reaction of oleic acid with maleic anhydride. The reaction was carried out between the OM adduct and the following compounds to form the correspondence demulsifiers; triethanolamine (OMTEA), triglycerol (OMTG), cetylamine (OMCA), triethanolamine with lauryl alcohol (OMTEA-LA), triethanolamine with cetylamine (OMTEA-CA), polyethylene glycol 600 (one mole (OM e.o. 13.6)), polyethylene glycol 600 (two moles (OM e.o. (13.6) 2)), polyethylene glycol 1000 (OM e.o. 22.7), triethanolamine with polyethylene glycol 1000 (OMTEA e.o. 22.7) and triethanolamine with polyethylene glycol 6000 (OMTEA e.o. 136.4). The chemical structures of the OM adduct and some selected demulsifiers were confirmed by 1H NMR and FTIR. A wide range of demulsifier properties can be obtained by changing the degree of functionalization of the base molecules. The demulsification efficiency of these demulsifiers was tested on w/o emulsions with 10, 30 and 50% water content. From the obtained data, it has found that, the investigated demulsifiers are having a great potential to break the w/o emulsions completely in different times. The (OMTEA e.o. 136.4) was exhibited the minimum time taken to complete separation. The data were discussed on the light of the chemical structure of the demulsifiers and the factors, which effect on the demulsification process.