Abstract—The formation of water-in-crude oil encountered in many stages such drilling, transporting, and processing of crude oil. To enhance and control these processes, it is necessary to understand the emulsion mechanisms. The present study aims to investigate the stability and the rheology of the crude oil emulsion stabilized by Cocamide DEA. Two types of Malaysian crude oil namely; heavy crude oil, and light-heavy blended crude oil (40-60) vol. % were Physio-chemically characterized, and fractionated by the SARA method of analysis. The stability of the emulsion was investigated using (0.2, 0.5, 1, and 1.5) vol.% of Cocamide DEA at different water volume fractions (50, and 20)%. Rheology studies were performed to demonstrate the effect of apparent dynamic viscosity on the emulsion stability. The dynamic viscosity was determined by Brokfeild Rotational Digital Viscometer. A wide range of temperatures (from 30 to 90) ᵒC, and shear rate (from 17 to 85) 1/s were covered. Results showed that higher concentration of Cocamide DEA and lower water volume fraction of 20% were effective in stabilizing the w/o emulsion at room temperature. In addition, the stabilized emulsion showed a non-Newtonian shear thinning “pseudo-plastic” behavior.
Index Terms—W/O emulsion, cocamide surfactant, stability, rheology properties.
The authors are with the Chemical Engineering Program, Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pahang, Malaysia (e-mail: rashaam12@gmail.com, nour2000_99@yahoo.com, ziad@ump.edu.my).
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Cite:Rasha Mohammed Abd, Abdurhman Hamid Nour, and Ahmad Ziad Sulaiman, "Kinetic Stability and Rheology of Water-in-Crude Oil Emulsion Stabilized by Cocamide at Different Water Volume Fractions," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 5, no. 2 pp. 204-209, 2014.
