In this system, emulsification and demulsification process could be easily engineered through tuning the pH values.
The demulsification process of the heavy oil emulsion was described as well.
To study the changes of emulsion droplets, microscopy was used to observe the emulsion during demulsification process.
Microscopic illustrations of the emulsions in the presence of the biosurfactants showed the aspects of the emulsion and demulsification process.
Comparing the characteristic of the demulsification process of the heavy oil emulsion before and after the addition of demulsifier, it indicated that the coalescence of the dispersed phase droplets is the controlling factor and crucial step of the demulsification.
The FBRM is proven to be a valuable tool for monitoring demulsification process in situ in real time to understand demulsification mechanisms, which sheds the lights on improving the current technology of demulsifying water-in-oil emulsions of petroleum industry.
Thus, increased stability can be attributed to the high viscosities found in emulsions with small droplet sizes, making the demulsification process difficult.
A focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) was used for on-line monitoring of emulsified water droplet size distribution in petroleum emulsion systems and chemical demulsification process.
The results shows that temperature and pH of aqueous phase are two main parameters in the demulsification process and the maximum dehydration is attained at neutral value of pH and nearly the maximum temperature in the all samples.
The microscopy of the residual motor oil emulsions in distilled water and in sea water with the crude and isolated biosurfactants after 24 h initiation of the demulsification process is shown in Fig. 3.
