Fast evaluation of synergistic effects of combinations of production chemicals on oil-in-water droplet stability using microfluidics
Abstract Worldwide, for each barrel of crude oil, 3 barrels of water are produced from a petroleum reservoir, commonly, in the form of a water-in-oil emulsion.
The presence of hydrocarbon compounds after separation affects the ecotoxicity of the discharged produced water.
Several production chemicals are commonly added to ease the separation of oil from the produced water or mitigate other production issues.
These chemicals highly affect the treatment of the produced water and may result in poor water quality.
The droplet size and droplet-droplet repulsion are affected by the concentration of each constituent in the chemical blends.
We apply microfluidic droplet generation for rapid evaluation of the synergistic effects of the combinations of production chemicals on the oil droplet stability.
The coalescence frequency of dispersed droplets of a bottomhole crude oil and model fluid in an aqueous medium is calculated based on high-speed camera acquisition.
The individual and combined effects of a commercial demulsifier and a corrosion inhibitor are evaluated based on the hydrophilic-lipophilic deviation theory.
The presence of as low as 10 ppm of the water-in-oil demulsifier is demonstrated to stabilize oil-in-water droplets, while the corrosion inhibitor creates droplets in a slug flow fashion.
The presence of the corrosion inhibitor in conjunction with the demulsifier results in the droplet adherence to the channel surface.
The importance of the right dosage and the right combination of production chemicals is demonstrated; imbalance of the dosages may lead to adverse effects that impair separation.
The microfluidic droplet generation technique is a valuable toolbox for assessing the effects of production chemicals on oil droplet stability.