Benefits using the ET products
- Speed up separation between oil and water
- Dry and clean oil phase
- Clean water phase
- Environmentally Friendly
Emulsion Treatment demuslifers
Demulsifiers are used for to remove water in oil emulsions – by destabilizing the emulsions they insure the separation of water and salts from the oil. These products are useful for oil recovery and for removing water from low-quality sources of oil, such as marine sludge and slop oil.
Emulsions
Crude and refined oils (RFO/HFO) often contain solid contaminants such as iron sulphides, clays, silts, paraffin’s, asphaltenes, organic acids etc. With the presence of water, these contaminants will attract to the high interfacial tension between the water droplets and the surrounding oil. Due to this fact i.e., coated water droplets, coalescence between droplets forming bigger droplets will be sterically hindered.
To make matters even worse the emulsions are made stronger and more emulsified by shear forces and pressure variances in process equipment such as pumps, valves etc. The emulsions can be made so strong that the natural separation of the oil and water is virtually nonexistent.
Separation of emuslions
An emulsion consists of several energy layers. The biggest droplet is easy to separate with a settling process. With increased temperature the settling is improved. But to separate the smaller droplets a chemical – demulsifier – is needed. To separate the hardest emulsion a high speed centrifugal separator is also needed.
Compositions of ET-products
The ET-products are complex blends of surface active polymers and surfactant components. The action of the Emulsion Treatment is to speed up water droplet coalescence by:
- Removing the surface layer of contaminants preventing stericaly hindered coalescence between water droplets.
- Bring well dispersed water droplets closer together by flocculation.
- Decrease surface tension between the water droplets to speed up
coalescence and formation of bigger droplets thus increasing the speed of separation.
Microscope picture of step 1, step 2 respective step 3 of water droplet coalescence.
Environmental friendly solvents
For our ET series of products we have chosen polymers and surfactants that possess the unique properties of being water soluble at ambient temperatures but becoming oil soluble at elevated temperatures, starting from 50 degrees C. The products have an optimal performance at elevated temperatures but start working from ambient conditions. For increased low temperature efficiency a variety of solvents can be used such as alcohols giving the products an environmentally friendly profile compared with conventional aromatic solvents.
Properties of ET products
Comparative tests carried out in China, Pakistan and Korea versus conventional products has shown:
- Lucent Oil products, due to compositions with unique polymers, achieve a cleaner water cut compared to competitor products.
- The standard selection of solvent makes the products harmless for operators to handle.
- Lucent Oil can supply “Concentrates” to be diluted with water or organic solvent on site resulting in reduced transportation costs.
Left sample: Water phase of competitor 1
Middle sample: Water phase of competitor 2
Right sample: Water phase of Lucent Oil ET-products
Product features and application areas
- Dehydration, water removal
- Waste oil treatment
- Marine slop and sludge treatment
- Crude oil production
- Oil lagoon recovery
- Desalination, removal of salt
- Residual crude oil treatment
- Fuel oil treatment
