Palm oil anionic surfactants based emulsion breaker (Case study of emulsions breaker at Semanggi Field production wells)

Abstract

The presence of emulsion in oil production process is undesirable. The emulsion will increase the production costs, transportation and costs related to emulsion separation process between water and oil. The development of palm oil-based surfactant as an emulsion breaker needs to be conducted given the availability of abundant raw materials in Indonesia and as an alternative to petroleum-based surfactant. The purpose of this study is to produce palm oil-based emulsion breaker, assessing the effect of additive application to the emulsion breaker and analyze the performance of the emulsion breaker. This research was conducted by formulating palm oil anionic surfactant in water formation with the addition of co-surfactant additive and co-solvent. Palm oil anionic surfactant-based emulsion breaker with 0.5% concentration in water can reduce 50% of emulsions with the interfacial tension (IFT) of 2.33x10-2 dyne/cm. The addition of co-solvent (toluene: xylene) is able to remove the emulsion formed with a lower IFT namely 10-3 dyne / cm. The resulting emulsion breaker is capable to remove the emulsion between water and oil. The performance test of emulsion breaker show that the emulsion is able to maintain its performance at reservoir temperature with no indicate of plugging and the value generated incremental oil recovery values is 13%.

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