Study on the Effect of Ultrasonic Wave Amplitude on Deemulsification of Crude Oil to enhance Production Process

One of the most challenging issues faced by the oil and gas industry is the formation
of crude oil emulsion. The emulsion formation will lead to inconsistency in the
production performance, which directly affects the economic growth of the industry.
Based on previous researches, traditional practices by the industry mainly focus on the
thermal, demulsifiers, and electrical methods on crude oil de-emulsification process.
Current de-emulsification methods are less effective as they long time for the
separation process to complete. Thus, this research is intended to study the effect of
the ultrasonic wave on demulsification process as a new approach in solving crude oil
emulsion related problem. Ultrasonic wave has high potential in enhancing the
separation rate as it has been used in oil sludge treatment. Three tests were conducted
on each treated emulsion to study the behaviour for more intensive analysis which are
Bottle Test, Cross- Polarized Microscope (CPM) and Karl Fischer (KF) titration.
Crude oil from Terengganu Crude Oil Terminal (TCOT) produced by PETRONAS
Carigali Sdn Bhd were utilised throughout the research. The combination of the
parameters were studied and analysed to identify the optimum demulsification process
by using the Design Expert 6 software. Ultrasonic irradiation was performed and
compared with base sample.