Synthesis, Characterization and Performance Testing of Environmental Acceptable Demulsifiers

Abstract

Separation of crude oil from production water has been one of the first and most important challenges of the oil and gas industry. The dehydration of the crude oil is required to meet transportation and selling standards, and the separation of residual oil from water has both ecological and technical reasons. Thus, the main object of using demulsifiers is to break the emulsions faster, using the lowest concentrations of chemicals without additional consumption of heat, to produce a complete separation avoiding potential hazardous discharges. To meet this, researchers have focused on the development of environmental acceptable demulsifiers that provides comparable or even better results than the current commercially available chemicals and the lowest as possible environmental impact. Two sets of three demulsifiers each were synthesized using a dendritic polyol and three different Methoxy Polyethylene Glycol with different degrees of ethoxylation. Two synthesis protocols were tested, and the products were compared in terms of functionalization efficiency and molar mass. Demulsification performance of the first set of products was evaluated, where the product synthesized with the MPEG of lower ethoxylation degree showed the best result. Furthermore, it was observed during the biodegradation test that the molecular weight of the chemicals has a strong influence on the capability of microorganisms to break down the macromolecules.