Demulsification of MIRI Crude Emulsion using Aeration

Throughout the oil production, crude oil emulsification is inevitable and become major challenges. The emulsification effect in operational problem especially pressure drop, low flow rate, increase in demulsifier dosage and low production. One of the potential technique in demulsifying the emulsion is by aeration. This report present the findings of a series of experiments performed to analyze the separation of emulsion, water and oil after aeration treatment at different volumetric flow rate of 50cc/min, 100cc/min, 150cc/min and 200cc/min. The different sizes of bubbles resulted from three orifice diameter used; 1mm, 3mm and 6mm. The different sizes of bubbles affect the demulsification rate affected by the hydrodynamic force as the bubble rises. From the findings, the best aeration rate is 100cc/min using 1mm diameter observed at the critical 30th minutes. The optimum solution resulting in separation of approximately 47% oil fraction 30% water fraction and only 25% emulsion layer