The Role of Resins, Asphaltenes, and Water in Water–Oil Emulsion Breaking with Microwave Heating

The stability of water-in-oil emulsions highly depends on the existence of polar components and their interactions within the emulsions. Asphaltenes, resins, and water are the main polar components of the emulsions. As the stability of the emulsions increases, emulsion breaking becomes more difficult and requires more energy and chemical input. With this study, we propose a significant reduction in energy and chemical use for efficient break up of water-in-oil emulsions through the application of microwave heating. To demonstrate this concept, we conduct experiments on different emulsions that originated from steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and expanding solvent SAGD (ES-SAGD) and investigate how the polar components initially present in the emulsions affect the microwave efficiency. Water, a polar molecule which is the main component in emulsions, was expected to allow the most efficient microwave absorption. However, our results show that asphaltenes and resins have greater role than the water co...

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