INTERFACIAL ENERGY DURING THE EMULSIFICATION OF WATER-IN-HEAVY CRUDE OIL EMULSIONS

• Autor(a) principal: Karcher,V.
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Perrechil,F. A., Bannwart,A. C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322015000100127
• topic: Emulsion; Interfacial energy; Energy balance; Droplet size

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the interfacial energy involved in the production of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions composed of water and a Brazilian heavy crude oil. For such purpose an experimental set-up was developed to measure the different energy terms involved in the emulsification process. W/O emulsions containing different water volume fractions (0.1, 0.25 and 0.4) were prepared in a batch calorimeter by using a high-shear rotating homogenizer at two distinct rotation speeds (14000 and 22000 rpm). The results showed that the energy dissipated as heat represented around 80% of the energy transferred to the emulsion, while around 20% contributed to the internal energy. Only a very small fraction of the energy (0.02 - 0.06%) was stored in the water-oil interface. The results demonstrated that the high energy dissipation contributes to the kinetic stability of the W/O emulsions.