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US 2004/0167233 A1Published application
Demulsification of emulsions by socillatory mixing
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorRamesh Varadaraj
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Abstract
The invention includes a method for demulsification of water-in-oil emulsions, oil-in-water emulsions, and mixtures of water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions by oscillatory mixing of the emulsions.
Claims21
A method for demulsifying an emulsion comprising water and oil comprising the steps of:
- (a) oscillatory mixing said emulsion to produce an oscillatory mixed emulsion;
- (b) separating said oscillatory mixed emulsion into an oil phase and a water phase;
- and
- (c) recovering said oil and water phases.
1 more element
A method for separation of a water-in-oil emulsion in a process scheme including an on-line oscillatory mixer comprising the steps of:
- (a) collecting a water-in-oil emulsion from said process scheme;
- (b) determining the elastic modulus of the emulsion as a function of frequency in the frequency range of 0.1 to 75 radians per second;
- (c) determining the fracture frequencies of said emulsion from the said determination of the elastic modulus of the emulsion as a function of frequency;
- (d) setting the said on-line oscillatory mixer to oscillate at a frequency corresponding to any one of said determined fracture frequencies;
- (e) oscillatory mixing said water-in-oil emulsion in said on-line oscillatory mixer set to said determined fracture frequency;
- and
- (f) separating said mixed emulsion into a layer comprising water and a layer comprising oil.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.