Process for controlling the breaking of oil-in water emulsions

A process for controlling the breaking of an oil-in-water emulsion using an organic emulsion breaker comprising the steps of:

• providing an optimal dosage range for said breaker sufficient to produce reproducible results in minimal time, by,
• A. adding the organic emulsion breaker to the emulsion by slow intermittent or continuous addition to produce a broker water phase;
• B. continuously passing a beam of light through the broken water phase;
• C. continuing the slow addition of the organic emulsion breaker to the broken water phase;
• D. continuously or intermittently measuring both the unadsorbed light passing through the broken water phase and the light scattered forward by oil droplets in the broken water phase;
• E. determining from the measurements in step D. the turbidity of the broken water phase;
• and
• F. discontinuing the addition of organic breaker when the turbidity reaches a first minimum value following a maximum value.