Chemical demulsifiers sold under various trade names, such as Tretolite ™, Visco™, and Breaxit™, are highly useful in resolving emulsions. Demulsifiers act to neutralize the effect of emulsifying agents. Typically, they are surface active agents and thus their excessive use can decrease the surface tension of water droplets and actually create more stable emulsions. There …
Read More…Category: Emulsion Treating Teory
Emulsifying Agent
When thinking about emulsion stability, it may be helpful to realize that in a pure oil and pure water mixture, without an emulsifying agent, no amount of agitation will create an emulsion. If the pure oil and water are mixed and placed in a container, they quickly separate. The natural state is for the immiscible …
Read More…Forming Emulsions
For an emulsion to exist there must be two mutually immiscible liquids, an emulsifying agent, and sufficient agitation to disperse the discontinuous phase into the continuous phase. In oil production, oil and water are the two mutually immiscible liquids. An emulsifying agent in the form of small solid particles, paraffins, asphaltenes, etc., is almost always …
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