Abstract
The petroleum industry is in demand of effective techniques for breaking stable emulsions.In order to develop a low-cost, green and effective demulsifier, fly ash taken from the local power plant was applied to water-in-oil emulsions of various concentrations and conditions.A thorough analysis of crude oil composition and ash sample structure was carried out.Emulsion separation kinetics demonstrated that the optimal temperature for the crude oil emulsions was 60 °C, but the demulsification efficiency was not satisfactory.To improve separation efficiency Tween 20 was applied to the emulsions in combination with grinded coal fly ash.This resulted in a higher demulsification efficiency (100% for some emulsions) and was justified by the microphotographs before and after demulsification.The optimal conditions found were as follows: 60 °C, Tween 20 (1600 ppm), and grinded coal fly ash (1 wt%).Finally, the demulsification process was investigated with FT-IR analysis to justify the proposed mechanism.