ARTICLE:

• STABILITY OF EMULSIONS : A MODEL DESCRIBING COALESCENCE OF HEAVY OILS IN GRAVITY FIELDS  download article

Jason Stoyel
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine

T. Sontvedt
NORSK HYDRO, Petroleum Research Laboratory, Research Centre, P.O. Box 2560, N-3901 Porsgrunn, Norway

ABSTRACT

A model has been developed which can be used to characterise the stability of water-in-oil emulsions formed by heavy oils. Its purpose is to transform data from small scale laboratory tests to field scale and may be used to identify the size and type of separation equipment required. The model characterises emulsions by means of four empirical coefficients which are used, in a numerical approach, to determine the appearance rate of both pure oil and pure water as well as the binary and the drop-homophase coalescence times. The two system parameters that have been investigated are the initial droplet size and the system water cut.

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