Process of preparing improved heavy and extra heavy crude oil emulsions by use of biosurfactants in water and product thereof

A process for preparing concentrated heavy crude and extra heavy crude-in-water emulsions comprising crude having between 20 and 6° API and biosurfactants in water, the process comprising the following steps:

• I) premixing comprising:
• a) dissolving a salt in different concentrations by agitation and at room temperature to form a saline solution;
• and b) mixing the biosurfactant in the saline solution by using agitation and room temperature to form a surfactant premix;
• II) preparing concentrated emulsion with the crude and the surfactant premix comprising:
• a) separately heating the surfactant premix and the crude between 30 and 90° C.;
• b) adding the crude to the surfactant premix with constant agitation and temperature;
• c) homogenizing the resulting mixture for 2 minutes and left standing another 2 minutes until completing 3 homogenizing-standing cycles to obtain a crude-in-water precursor emulsion;
• d) mixing with constant agitation and temperature (30-60° C.), an additional quantity of biosurfactant to said precursor emulsion to achieve a biosurfactant concentration between 100 and 10,000 ppm of biosurfactant in the total volume of the resulting precursor emulsion;
• e) continuing with constant agitation and temperature to obtain an emulsion-biosurfactant premix;
• f) separately measuring a balance of crude for preparation of the concentrated emulsion and heating between 30-60° C.;
• g) adding said crude to the emulsion-biosurfactant premix with constant agitation;
• h) then, homogenizing the resulting mixture for 2 minutes and left standing another 2 minutes until completing three homogenizing-standing cycles in order to obtain the concentrated crude-in-water emulsion having a water content of 10 to 70 vol %.