Influence of the separation elements’ shape on the process of water-oil emulsion demulsification in the pipe

Abstract

Abstract In order to intensify the demulsification of water-oil emulsions, various types of separation elements for the settling tanks are proposed, namely, the corrugated plates with different orientation of corrugations, located at an angle of 45°, 135° and the cross-corrugated plates. The experimental studies of water-oil emulsion demulsification by means of a laboratory unit, using the developed separation elements were conducted. The conducted studies showed that the use of various separation elements inside the settling tanks allows intensifying the process of water-oil emulsion demulsification. The separation elements, considered in this paper, allow the performance of demulsification process with minimum 62% efficiency at the average rate of emulsion movement of more than 0.04 m/s. In the course of studies, it was found that the most effective of the considered separation elements are the corrugated plates with an orientation of corrugations, located at an angle of 45°, allowing the process of water-oil emulsion demulsification with an average efficiency of 80.1% at the movement rate within the range of 0.04–0.053 m/s. It is also shown that for the various separation elements, there are the most effective ranges of emulsion rates, at which the maximum values of demulsification efficiency are achieved.