Effect of magnetic graphene oxide on the demulsification process of heavy oil emulsion / Nurfarahain Abu Bakar

Crude oil emulsions cause several difficulties to Oil and Gas industry whether in production phase and processing phase. Due to the problems arises, the researchers had started to investigate the effective method to treat and separate the emulsions for many years. Interfacial film form around the liquid droplets at oil/water interface prevent the emulsions to coalesce and aggregate. Surfactant is one of the component that stabilized the interfacial film surrounding the dispersed phase droplets. The most efficient demulsification method is chemical demulsification process which able to obtain the desired separation efficiency while abide with the environmental regulations and imposing the least economic burden on the petroleum industry. A magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) was produced from graphene oxide (GO) by one-step co-precipitation method. The properties of the MGO were characterized by XRD analysis and supported by FTIR analysis. Different concentrations of MGO used to demulsify the heavy oil emulsions of different water cut (80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, and 40:60 v/v%) were studied. The magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) was successfully synthesized and used for separating diluted heavy oil emulsions. Demulsification tests which is bottle test indicated that MGO can separate the emulsions within a few minutes. UV-Visible spectrophotometer was used to analyze the residual oil content in the separated water. The residual oil concentration was as low as 20 mg/mL equivalent to a demulsification efficiency of 99.99% which at an optimal dosage of MGO demulsifier. The changes in the interfacial tension of the emulsions during demulsification process were also analyzed. The interfacial tension decreased when the concentration of MGO demulsifier increased.