This document discusses oil dehydration and the process of separating water from crude oil. It notes that oil coming from wells typically contains a mixture of oil, water, gas, and solids that must be separated before the oil can be sold. This is done through a process called oil treating or dehydration. Emulsions, where one liquid is dispersed in another, commonly form and must be broken to separate the oil and water. Key factors that affect emulsion stability and breakdown include the type and amount of emulsifying agents present, differential density and viscosity of the liquids, interfacial tension, water droplet size, salinity, volume of water, age of the emulsion, and agitation during transport and processing.
This document discusses oil dehydration and the process of separating water from crude oil. It notes that oil coming from wells typically contains a mixture of oil, water, gas, and solids that must be separated before the oil can be sold. This is done through a process called oil treating or dehydration. Emulsions, where one liquid is dispersed in another, commonly form and must be broken to separate the oil and water. Key factors that affect emulsion stability and breakdown include the type and amount of emulsifying agents present, differential density and viscosity of the liquids, interfacial tension, water droplet size, salinity, volume of water, age of the emulsion, and agitation during transport and processing.
This document discusses oil dehydration and the process of separating water from crude oil. It notes that oil coming from wells typically contains a mixture of oil, water, gas, and solids that must be separated before the oil can be sold. This is done through a process called oil treating or dehydration. Emulsions, where one liquid is dispersed in another, commonly form and must be broken to separate the oil and water. Key factors that affect emulsion stability and breakdown include the type and amount of emulsifying agents present, differential density and viscosity of the liquids, interfacial tension, water droplet size, salinity, volume of water, age of the emulsion, and agitation during transport and processing.
This document discusses oil dehydration and the process of separating water from crude oil. It notes that oil coming from wells typically contains a mixture of oil, water, gas, and solids that must be separated before the oil can be sold. This is done through a process called oil treating or dehydration. Emulsions, where one liquid is dispersed in another, commonly form and must be broken to separate the oil and water. Key factors that affect emulsion stability and breakdown include the type and amount of emulsifying agents present, differential density and viscosity of the liquids, interfacial tension, water droplet size, salinity, volume of water, age of the emulsion, and agitation during transport and processing.
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 39
Wet crude
processing
OIL DEHYDRATION
1. INTRODUCTION
Rarely is clean oil (produced from an oil
well ( ready for sale. Generally, what comes out of the well is a mixture of:
Oil, Water, Gas, and Sand or solid materiel 4
Foreign material, such as
water and sand
must be separated from the oil and gas before they can be sold. This process is known as:
Oil Treating or Oil
Dehydration 5
The amount of this foreign material is
referred to as
BS&W
(Basic Sediment and Water, content of
the oil) Normally, the BS&W content must be
less than 0.5 % vol.
Before the oil will be acceptable for sale into a pipeline 6
Oil treating requires a knowledge
of emulsions. waterinoil emulsion Oilinwater emulsion
Water-in-Oil Emulsion
Oil-inWater
Separated Oil & Water7
The objective: Is to separate the oil from the water, or to break the emulsion. Generally, the emulsion must be: Heated ,and Emulsion breaking chemical added To accomplish this.
2. EMULSIONS
Water produced with oil in the form of:
Free water and/or Emulsion (water mixed oil) In an emulsion: One of the liquids is spread out or dispersed (discontinuous phase) throughout the other (continuous phase) in the form of small (tiny) droplets. 10
In most oil field emulsions are water-inoil emulsion.
When the opposite happens, oil-inwater emulsion is formed in case of high water cut. Emulsions may be: Tight
(difficult to break)
or Loose
(easy to break)
Depending on the type and amount of
11 emulsifying agent present.
necessary to have: Two mutually immiscible liquid An emulsifying agent In the form of - Workover fluids - Resins - Drilling muds - Organic acids - Solid particles - Organic bases - Paraffins - Metallic salts - Asphaltenes - Colloidal salts Sufficient agitation to disperse
12
sufficient agitation always occurs as
fluid makes its way into the Well bore (down hole pump or gas lift valves) Up the tubing (restrictions) Through the surface choke (pressure drop) The degree of agitation and the nature and amount of emulsifying agent determine the stability of the emulsion 13
Flow Regime
Chokes/Valves
Bends in pipework
Pumps
Well bore area perforations
Oil Bearing Formation
Potential Shear sources
14
15
16
Emulsion. 3 Terminology
17
1. Standard or Regular Emulsion
water droplets are dispersed in a continuous surrounding body of crude oil. 2. Reversed or Inverted Emulsion oil droplets are dispersed continuous water phase.
in
3. Unstable or Loose Emulsion
water droplets are relatively large in size. 4. Stable or Tight Emulsion water droplets are small size. 18
4. EMULSIFYING AGENTS
19
E.A is a substance has a surface-active
behavior that: Promotes the formation, and Stability of emulsion. E.A are collecting on the surface of water droplets and forming a tough film which keeps the droplets from joining. An emulsifier will tend to be insoluble in one of the liquid phases, it thus concentrates at the interface. 20
There are several ways emulsifiers work
to change a dispersion phase into an emulsion. 1. It decreases the interfacial tension of the water droplet. (Causing smaller droplets to form). Take longer time to coalesce into larger droplets which would settle quickly. 2. It forms a viscous coating on the droplets surface. (which keeps them from coalescing into larger droplets when they collide) 21
3.
The emulsifiers may be polar
molecules (which align themselves in such manner as to cause an electrical charge on the surface of the droplets)
22
Stability of the emulsion
The following factors are affecting in emulsion formation and stability: 1. The type and amount of emulsifying agent, 2. Temperature history of the emulsion (affects the formation of paraffin and asphaltenes), 3. The speed of migration of the emulsifying agent to the oil water interface, and 4. The behavior in terms of the strength23
In order to break an emulsion, the film
must be neutralized or destroyed by using treatment methods. Treating is usually done in the field using:
surface-active agents Their excessive use: Can decrease the surface tension of water droplets and actually create more stable emulsion. Tend to emulsions.
promote
oil-in-water
Sold under various trade names such as
Tretolite, Visco, Braksit, etc. 26
There are four important
required of a demulsifier:
actions
Strong attraction to the oil/water
interface, Flocculation, Coalescence, and Solid wetting. When these actions are present they promote the separation of oil and water. 27
Strong attraction to the oil/water
interface The demulsifier must have the ability to migrate rapidly through the oil phase to the droplet interface, where it must compete with the more concentrated emulsifying agent. The demulsifier must have an attraction for droplets with a similar condition. In this way, large clusters of droplets gather which, under a microscope, 28 appear like bunches of fish eggs.
Oil Phase
Water Droplet
Water Droplet
Oil Phase
Water Droplet
Water Droplet
Without Demulsifier Treatment the
With Demulsifier Treatment the Pliable Film Around the Water Film Becomes Brittle and Ruptures when Droplet Remains Intact when a Collision Occurs a Collision Occurs
Demulsifier Chemicals 29
Flocculation At this point, the emulsifier film is still continuous. If the emulsifier is weak, the flocculation force may be enough to cause coalescence. The demulsifier must therefore: Neutralize the emulsifier, and Promote a rupture of the dropletinterface film. 30
The Process of Flocculation and
Coalescence Droplets have strong attraction for each other
Barrier is broken COALESCENCE
takes place
Contact is made FLOCCULATION
Resultant larger water drop
31
Coalescence With the emulsion in a flocculated condition, the film rupture results and causes coalescence in rapid growth of water drop size.
32
Solid wetting The manner in which the demulsifier neutralizes the emulsifier depends upon the type of emulsifiers. Iron sulfides, clays and drilling mud's can be water-wet causing them to leave the interface and be diffused into the water droplet. Paraffins and asphaltenes could be dissolved or altered to make their films less viscous so they will made oil-wet and will be dispersed in the oil. 33
It would be unusual if one
chemical structure could produce all four desirable actions. A blend of compounds is therefore used to achieve the right balance of activity.
34
Demulsifiers Selection The demulsifiers selection should be made with the process system in mind. If the treating process is a settling tank, a relatively slow-acting compound can be applied with good results. If the system is an electro-chemical process where some of the flocculation and coalescing action is accomplished by the electric field, there is need for a quick-acting compound. 35
Demulsifier Changes As field conditions change, If the process is modified, Seasonal changes bring paraffininduced emulsion problems, Workovers contribute to solid, and Acid/base contents which alters emulsion stability. It can not be assumed that the demulsifier will always be satisfactory over the life of the field. 36
6. FACTORS AFFECTING EMULSION BREAKDOWN
37
Differential Density 6.1
6.2 Viscosity 6.3 Interfacial Tension 6.4 Water Drop Size 6.5 Salinity of the Water 6.6 Volume Percent of the Water 6.7 Emulsifying Agents 6.8 Age of Emulsion 6.9 Agitation 38
The difficulty of separating the
emulsified water from the oil depends on the stability of the emulsion, and The stability of the emulsion, in turn, is dependent on several factors.
