Formulation of Demulsifiers from Locally Sourced Raw Materials for Treatment of a Typical Nigerian Crude Oil Emulsion

Abstract Crude oil produced from the depths of the earth and during processing is associated with water or aqueous solutions of salts, particularly sodium chloride and during spills over waters, in the form of emulsions. Nigeria, an oil producing country, has remained dependent on foreign demulsifiers for the treatment of crude oil emulsion. This water interferes with refining operations, provoke corrosions, increase heat capacity and reduce the handling capacity of refining equipment and pipelines. Four samples of crude oil emulsion were collected from Ughelli East stations W/10L, W/10L, W/8L and W/1T, and labeled A, B, C, and D respectively. These samples were kept for few days at regulated temperature below their well head temperature to allow for natural gravitation. Meanwhile, four blends of local demulsifiers were formulated using locally sourced materials of non-edible jatropha curcas oil, industrial camphor, paraffin wax, starch from cassava and prepared liquid soap. These blends were used to treat the crude oil emulsion at a ratio of 1:50 ml using bottle test method at room temperature and regulated well head temperature in a water bath alongside the patent Separol N46 demulsifier as ‘control experiment’. The comparative results obtained showed that all local demulsifiers performance increased with separating time and operating temperature, while equal dosage of patent Separol N46 showed no performance. However, treatments AWHT4, BRT4, CWHT3 and DWHT4 all at well head temperature showed that most water was expelled after about 480 minutes. These results showed that the demulsifiers produced from these local content materials were cheaper, time effective and broke the selected crude oil within a shorter time frame than the foreign demulsifiers.