Microwave Applications in Demulsification of Crude Oil

A method for transferring heavy oil emulsion with high viscosity heavy crude oil through the pipeline. Despite the substantial reduction in pressure and viscosity of the emulsion water/ oil, water must be removed before entering the refining process. Several methods have been proposed for the separation of water from the emulsion. The most common method demulsification oil is heating the emulsion. In addition, other methods have been introduced for deemulsification, despite the benefits, limitations, and problems such as low efficiency, high equipment costs and environmental problems are substantial. Therefore, due to the problems mentioned research has been directed toward new technologies. Among the methods of the past decade, most attention has been the use of microwave energy for heating instead of conventional demulsification. The advantage of this method is selected and volumetric heating, which causes the aqueous phase is further influenced by the type of heating and water separation efficiency increases. The microwave will cause the rotation of water molecules thereby neutralizing zeta potential leads to the breakdown of hydrogen bonds between water and the surfactant.