Increased energy savings in water/oil separation throug advanced fundamental emulsion paradigms

Resultat från programmet har presenterats för referensgruppen vid två möten, dvs i maj i Trondheim och i december i Trondheim. Referensgruppen var förnöjd med teknisk nivå och progression. Resultat från projektet har presenterats som två key note presenta tioner, dvs vid den internationella Petrophase 2013 conferensen (ca 300 deltagare)i Paris och vid ChemInd2013(ca 650 deltagare) i Bahrain. I Paris ordnades en särskild session för Johan Sjöblom (60 år) med internationella föreläsare. Programmets första Ph D Andreas Nenningsland disputerade i december 2012. Low-Field NMR färdig för kommercialisering.

The project "Increased Energy Savings in Water/Oil separation Through Advanced Fundamental Emulsion Paradigms" will advance fundamental knowledge of the water-oil separation process in order to make it more energy efficient and energy saving, by accelerat ing the processing of high volumes of water and oil by speeding-up the sub-processes of creaming and sedimentation of existing emulsions in the first stage. The second stage involves treatment of concentrated w/o or o/w emulsions. The project spans molec ular phenomena, interfacial and aggregation levels and important sub-processes. On the molecular level, activities will be focused on the physico-chemical properties of indigenous molecules in the crude oil (asphaltenes, resins and naphthenic acids), synt hesised model compounds mimicking the indigenous ones with regard to interfacial and bulk properties and finally on green chemical additives to be developed by the chemical companies AkzoNobel and Champion Technologies for improved flocculation, creaming and sedimentation of the emulsions. In the second stage of the project focus will also be on inversion and coalescence phenomena. In order to improve the energy aspects of the whole process the control of the sub-processes mentioned above will require a v ery good understanding of the interfacial properties. The program will combine experimental and modeling approaches. The experimental part will utilize the advanced instrumentation developed at Ugelstad Laboratory together with complimentary instrumentat ion at the collaborating institutes. The modeling will involve molecular simulation techniques, network modeling and population balance approaches in order to cover the whole aspects of the separation process. As such the project is an extensive internat ional collaboration between active partners in Norway, Canada, Sweden and The Netherlands, and is financially supported by international oil and gas companies and chemical vendors.