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Reduce overdosing effects in chemical demulsifier applications by increasing mixing energy and decreasing injection concentration

Reduce overdosing effects in chemical demulsifier applications by increasing mixing energy and decreasing injection concentration
Reduce overdosing effects in chemical demulsifier applications by increasing mixing energy and decreasing injection concentration

It has been known for years that the performance of a demulsifier in diluted bitumen dewatering improves up to a certain demulsifier bulk concentration. After this limit, the water removal deteriorates. This phenomenon is called overdosing. In this paper, the effects of mixing energy and demulsifier injection concentration on water removal are studied in systems with a high bulk demulsifier concentration. The experiments were conducted in a confined impeller stirred tank (CIST), which provides well-controlled mixing conditions with more uniform turbulence and flow than a conventional stirred tank. The results show that an increase in mixing energy and pre-dilution of the demulsifier may be able to overcome overdosing effects at a high bulk (mean) concentration. If the mixing conditions are well-designed, high local demulsifier concentrations at the feed point are avoided and the demulsifier can perform well, even at high bulk concentrations. The best demulsifier performance in an overdosed system was obtained with a combination of high mixing energy and low injection concentration, where over 80% of the water content was separated at a demulsifier bulk concentration that showed severe overdosing behavior at poor mixing conditions.

0887-0624
5183-5189
Chong, Jeng Yi
2f9ead94-86f2-4e20-9e67-75f10759555b
Machado, Marcio B.
01d4a69a-2cb8-4f2b-a76d-f18e2938b86c
Bhattacharya, Sujit
65999852-1b21-4147-a222-20aa8ca2876e
Ng, Samson
fdfad27e-5874-480a-9ae7-89cf1ae79565
Kresta, Suzanne M.
d4be6d7d-0a77-434d-a242-3966d53f5f8c
Chong, Jeng Yi
2f9ead94-86f2-4e20-9e67-75f10759555b
Machado, Marcio B.
01d4a69a-2cb8-4f2b-a76d-f18e2938b86c
Bhattacharya, Sujit
65999852-1b21-4147-a222-20aa8ca2876e
Ng, Samson
fdfad27e-5874-480a-9ae7-89cf1ae79565
Kresta, Suzanne M.
d4be6d7d-0a77-434d-a242-3966d53f5f8c

Chong, Jeng Yi, Machado, Marcio B., Bhattacharya, Sujit, Ng, Samson and Kresta, Suzanne M. (2016) Reduce overdosing effects in chemical demulsifier applications by increasing mixing energy and decreasing injection concentration. Energy and Fuels, 30 (6), 5183-5189. (doi:10.1021/acs.energyfuels.6b00621).

Record type: Article

Abstract

It has been known for years that the performance of a demulsifier in diluted bitumen dewatering improves up to a certain demulsifier bulk concentration. After this limit, the water removal deteriorates. This phenomenon is called overdosing. In this paper, the effects of mixing energy and demulsifier injection concentration on water removal are studied in systems with a high bulk demulsifier concentration. The experiments were conducted in a confined impeller stirred tank (CIST), which provides well-controlled mixing conditions with more uniform turbulence and flow than a conventional stirred tank. The results show that an increase in mixing energy and pre-dilution of the demulsifier may be able to overcome overdosing effects at a high bulk (mean) concentration. If the mixing conditions are well-designed, high local demulsifier concentrations at the feed point are avoided and the demulsifier can perform well, even at high bulk concentrations. The best demulsifier performance in an overdosed system was obtained with a combination of high mixing energy and low injection concentration, where over 80% of the water content was separated at a demulsifier bulk concentration that showed severe overdosing behavior at poor mixing conditions.

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More information

Published date: 16 June 2016
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC CRDPJ 419431) and Syncrude Canada (SCL 4410039724) for financial support, Shaun Leo for the images shown in panels a and b of Figure 4, and Syncrude Canada for the permission to publish the results. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 American Chemical Society.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486373
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486373
ISSN: 0887-0624
PURE UUID: 070b2427-c681-4a77-a145-36ea06a339da
ORCID for Jeng Yi Chong: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0593-6313

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Date deposited: 18 Jan 2024 19:26
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 02:20

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Contributors

Author: Jeng Yi Chong ORCID iD
Author: Marcio B. Machado
Author: Sujit Bhattacharya
Author: Samson Ng
Author: Suzanne M. Kresta

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