Nombre: LUILA ABIB SAIDLER LIMA
Tipo: MSc dissertation
Fecha de publicación: 08/08/2016
Supervisor:
Nombre |
Rol |
|---|---|
| MARIA DE FATIMA PEREIRA DOS SANTOS | Advisor * |
Junta de examinadores:
| Nombre |
Rol |
|---|---|
| MARIA DE FATIMA PEREIRA DOS SANTOS | Advisor * |
| MARISTELA DE ARAUJO VICENTE | Co advisor * |
| RENATO DO NASCIMENTO SIQUEIRA | External Examiner * |
| VALDEMAR LACERDA JUNIOR | External Examiner * |
Resumen: Due to the undesirable effects of emulsions in the oil industry, there is an effort in
investigating the stability of water-oil emulsions (W/O) in order to developed strategies
to destabilize the emulsions and separate the phases, and also evaluate other
parameters that affect their formation. Because of this demand for information, the
present study investigates the application of ultrasound (US) in the synthesis of stable
W/O emulsion and the influence of process parameters, that is, sonication time, US
amplitude, processed volume and volume fraction of the dispersed phase, in the
properties of the emulsion, particularly in the emulsion droplet size and viscosity.
Initially, to optimize the method, a 22 °API oil was used as continuous phase and saline
water (60 g/L) as dispersed phase, with a volume fraction of 10 to 20%. 100 and 200
mL volume were prepared for different exposure times (1, 3 and 5 minutes) and US
intensities (20, 30 and 40%), at a frequency of 24 kHz evaluating them based on the
droplet size distribution (DSD) and dynamic viscosity. Finally, it was evaluated the effect
on oil characteristics by applying the methodology to another sample of oil, 35.2 °API,
within the same initial conditions. The study showed the ultrasound has the ability to
form W/O stable emulsions with a polydisperse DSD. The increase in the exposure time
increases the power dissipated in the system, forming smaller drops and more uniform
DSD, tending to a normal distribution with volume average diameter (D0,5) equal to 0.1
micrometers. Smaller volumes and lower volume fractions, 100 ml and 10% of water,
resulted in a greater absorption of acoustic energy, leading to the formation of finer
emulsions. It follows that the ultrasound technique is a valid alternative in the W/O
emulsion synthesis process and may help future studies of flow emulsions in oil
production.
