Rheology and Stability of Emulsions of Oil Refining Residuals in Water

The rheology and stability of oil-in-water emulsions containing residual oil from the vacuum distillation of Mexican petroleum is described. Emulsions were prepared inmixing tanks at different impeller speeds but same mixing time. A mix of nonionic surfactant of the type nonil phenol ethoxylate and a stabilizer type carboxymethylcellulose were used in the preparation, in all cases the concentration of surfactant and stabilizer were the same. Results show that the viscosity and stability behavior of emulsions not only depend on the vacuum residual oil content, but also mean droplet size and the dispersion of droplet sizes plays an equally crucial role.