Modeling of Liquid/Liquid Phase Separation: Application to Petroleum Emulsions

A description of water-in-oil emulsion destabilization under gravity effect was proposed taking account of both droplet sedimentation and coalescence between droplets and with their homophase. Physical laws were developed and permitted to describe the evolution of each interface including sedimentation, free water phase, and droplet dense packed zone. Batch settling experiments were performed on a dispersion rig set up with a cell equipped with capacitance sensors. This specific experiment permits the control the emulsion formation and registers the kinetic of oil/emulsion/water phase separation. Simulations of experiments were then performed using the physical laws previously described. A good fitting of the experimental curves was obtained by matching only one parameter representative of droplet collision efficiency.