Demulsifier: An Important Agent in Breaking Crude Oil Emulsions

Abstract Effectively breaking an emulsion is very important in the petroleum industry since the produced crude oil is accompanied by water, which is linked to emulsions and can cause various environmental issues. To resolve these issues, surfactants are combined with crude oil to achieve a stable emulsion. In turn, failure to effectively break the crude oil emulsion can later have both commercial and technical impacts on this industry, mostly in the transportation, refining, and treatment facilities. This review considers some past and current studies on crude oil, the formation and stability of emulsions, the demulsification process and its mechanisms, techniques used to break crude oil emulsions, and formulations of demulsifiers. It demonstrates that combinations of one or more separation modes and demulsification modeling can improve the efficiency of breaking crude oil emulsions.