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
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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
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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
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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.
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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

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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

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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
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Flow
Regime

Chokes/Valves

Bends in
pipework

Pumps

Well bore area perforations

Oil Bearing Formation

Potential Shear
sources

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15

16

Emulsion. 3
Terminology

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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.
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4. EMULSIFYING
AGENTS

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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.
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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)
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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)

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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:

Various types of equipment

1. Free-water knockouts.
2. Separators.
3. Heater treaters.
4. Electrostatic treaters.

Adding chemicals immediately

after oil
is produced.
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5. DEMULSIFIERS

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Demulsifiers act to neutralize the effect

of emulsifying agents and are:

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.
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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.
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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,
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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
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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.
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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

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Coalescence
With the emulsion in a flocculated
condition, the film rupture results and
causes coalescence in rapid growth of
water drop size.

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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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6. FACTORS AFFECTING
EMULSION BREAKDOWN

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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
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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.

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