Catastrophic and transitional phase inversion of water-in-oil emulsion for heavy and light crude oil

Abstract

The stability of emulsion plays an important role either for catastrophic or transitional phase inversion to break and inverse emulsion from w/o to o/w or vice versa. The stability of emulsion also depends on the rheology and characteristics of the crude oil. In this study, the characteristics of crude oil were investigated closely before emulsion was prepared to further study in catastrophic and transitional phase inversion. The prepared emulsion, volume fraction (10-90 to 60-40% w/o emulsion), stirring intensity (1500 rpm) for 5 min and heating temperature (22-90°C) were evaluated. Heavy crude oil pointed up the catastrophic phase inversion higher than light crude oil. While, transition phase inversion obtained for lighter crude oil as increasing temperature. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.