Overview on petroleum emulsions, formation, influence and demulsification treatment techniques

The most challenging aspect in petroleum industry is high produced water accompanying crude oil extraction. In modern days, environmental attention has become very significant due to large quantity of produced water. Produced water in crude oil extraction consists of a mixture of several compounds, including inorganic, organic and other elements. The elements in produced water have a wide environmental influence and sometimes cause poisonous impact on sounded area. Meanwhile, there are several techniques to treat produced water. However, a major part of produced water is an emulsion and this leads to a major problem associated with crude oil treatment and transport. At the same time, limitations in treatment techniques for produced water have been demanding researchers to investigate on demulsification techniques for several years. Researchers also noted that there are a lot of elements influencing emulsion stability and interfacial film, including asphaltenes, resins, solid particles, water and oil content, PH, etc. However, one of the techniques that has received attention in enhanced oil recovery is a chemical method by using surface active agents (surfactant). Keywords: Emulsion, Produced water, Interfacial stability, Demulsification mechanism, Surfactant