Liquid purification or separation – Processes – Making an insoluble substance or accreting suspended...
Patent
1996-12-02
1998-06-02
Hruskoci, Peter A.
Liquid purification or separation
Processes
Making an insoluble substance or accreting suspended...
210728, 210729, 210734, 210735, 252336, 252338, 252358, 208188, B01D 1705
Patent
active
057594090
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved process for separating water from crude oil. The present invention furthermore relates to the oil demulsifiers used for this purpose.
2. Description of the Background
In the production of crude oils, an increasing amount of water is simultaneously extracted with increasing exploitation of the deposits. Surfactants present in the crude oils emulsify the major part of the water, stable water-in-oil emulsions being formed. The emulsified water may account for from 0.1 to more than 90% by weight of the total emulsion. Salts which lead to corrosion problems in the further processing of the crude oil in the refinery may be dissolved in the emulsion water. Before transport, the emulsion water must therefore be separated off or reduced below an acceptable concentration. This is generally done by adding oil demulsifiers, separation being facilitated and accelerated by heating the crude oil.
The crude oils differ greatly in their composition depending on their origin. The natural emulsifiers present in the crude oils furthermore have a complicated chemical structure, so that selective oil demulsifiers must be developed to overcome their effect. Owing to the opening up of new oil fields and changed production conditions in older fields, there is a constant need for novel demulsifiers which result in a more rapid separation into water and oil and very small amounts of residual water and residual salts.
EP-A 549 918 discloses oil demulsifiers based on an alkoxylate, for example monohydric or dihydric alcohols, such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol or butylene glycol, reacted with from 3 to 100 mol of ethylene oxide, propylene oxide or butylene oxide per hydroxyl group. These alcohol alkoxylates having demulsifying activity may also be used together with oxyalkylated polyalkylenepolyamines, which also have demulsifying activity. However, the known oil demulsifiers and mixtures of oil demulsifiers frequently do not fully meet the requirements since separation of the emulsion into on-spec oil and water having a very small residual oil content either takes too long or requires excessively large doses of the demulsifier.
It is an object of the present invention to provide oil demulsifiers which permit highly quantitative separation of the emulsion into oil and water in a very short time, ie. which exhibit good efficiency even in a small dose.
Since, for economic and ecological reasons, very substantial exploitation of the oil fields and complete separation of the residual oil from the water are becoming increasingly important, the achievement of this object is of additional importance.
SUMMARY
We have found that this object is achieved by a process for separating water from crude oil, wherein the oil demulsifier used is a mixture of of the compounds, alkylene oxide block copolymers, where these condensates may furthermore be completely or partially quaternized at the nitrogen atoms, or demulsifying activity and is of the general formula I or II group or alkylphenyl group where the alkyl radical is of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, carbon atoms or a phenylethylene group,
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Compounds A having demulsifying activity which are preferably used as oil demulsifiers are known substances of the following structure types:
(a) polyethyleneimine alkoxylates of the general formula III ##STR1## where A.sup.1 has the abovementioned meanings, and
(b) monoamine alkoxylates of the general formula IV or oligoamine alkoxylates of the general formula V ##STR2## where R.sup.2 is straight-chain or branched C.sub.1 -C.sub.30 alkyl, straight-chain or branched C.sub.2 -C.sub.30 alkenyl or phenylalkyl where the alkyl group is of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, R.sup.2, carbon atoms, present in block form,
(c) alkoxylated alkylphenol/formaldehyde resins of the general formula VI ##STR3## where R.sup.4 is straight-chain or branched C.sub.1 -C.sub.20 alkyl, in particular C.sub.4 -C.sub.12 alkyl,
(d) alkoxylated amine-modified al
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Knauf Wolfgang
Oppenlander Knut
Slotman Wilhelmus
BASF - Aktiengesellschaft
Hruskoci Peter A.
Morrison Betsey J.
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