Use of CO2-Triggered Switchable Surfactants for the Stabilization of Oil-in-Water Emulsions

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• 作者：Chen Liang ; Jitendra R. Harjani ; Tobias Robert ; Estrella Rogel ; Donald Kuehne ; Cesar Ovalles ; Vasudevan Sampath ; Philip G. Jessop
• 刊名：Energy & Fuels
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：January 19, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：26
• 期：1
• 页码：488-494
• 全文大小：292K
• 年卷期：v.26,no.1(January 19, 2012)
• ISSN：1520-5029

文摘

Pipelining of heavy crudes can be facilitated by preparing oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions of the crude, but separation of the oil from the water after pipelining is problematic if conventional surfactants are used. Long-chain acetamidines are CO₂-triggered switchable surfactants, being surface-active when CO₂ is present but not when CO₂ is absent. Unfortunately, in the presence of CO₂, they stabilize water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions of heavy crude rather than the desired O/W emulsions. However, in the absence of added CO₂, several compounds (Na₂CO₃, three of the long-chain acetamidines, and two other amidines) stabilize O/W emulsions. These low-viscosity emulsions can later be broken by the addition of CO₂. The residual oil content in the recovered water is lowest if the compound used to stabilize the original emulsion was a long-chain acetamidine.