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Spring 2016
During the extraction of crude oil or bitumen, stable water-in-oil emulsions are inevitably formed. The emulsified water contains chloride ions and other organic acidic compounds that cause severe corrosion problems to the downstream plant equipment, creating operational and safety issues and...
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Fall 2014
The formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions during bitumen extraction poses problems for water separation from diluted bitumen, which leads to equipment corrosion and catalyst fouling in downstream operations. Demulsifiers are used to break the stable emulsions and assist the separation of...
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Dynamic Demulsification Mechanism of Asphaltene-Stabilized Water-in-Oil Emulsions by Ethylcellulose
DownloadFall 2015
In previous studies, nontoxic and biodegradable ethylcellulose (EC) was shown to be capable of breaking water-in-diluted bitumen emulsions. Nevertheless, the demulsification mechanism of EC has not been correlated to its effect on the physical properties of stabilizing interfacial asphaltene...
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Electrocoalescence of Water Droplets in Oil Emulsions: Effect of Electric Fields, Surfactants, and Chemical Demulsifiers
DownloadSpring 2019
Stabilization of water-in-oil droplets during bitumen extraction and refining process poses a major challenge in the oil sands industry. These crude oil emulsions are stabilized by rigid films at water droplet-oil interfaces. The salty water remaining in oil causes equipment corrosion, catalyst...
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Spring 2017
The formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions during oil sands extraction process causes a number of operational issues, such as equipment corrosion, storage and transportation problems. One common method for emulsion breakup in industry is to use chemical demulsifiers. The chemical demulsifiers...
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Fall 2012
Recently, a commercially available biodegradable polymer, ethyl cellulose (EC) has been found to be effective in destabilizing water-in-diluted bitumen emulsions. In this study, the role of hydroxyl content and molecular weight of ECs and the effect of mixing and operating temperature in...