Hamidi Hossein, Mohammadian Erfan, Asadullah Mohammad, Azdarpour Amin, Rafati Roozbeh
Petroleum Engineering Department, School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, UK.
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 UiTM, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Ultrason Sonochem. 2015 Sep;26:428-436. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2015.01.009. Epub 2015 Jan 14.
Ultrasound technique is one of the unconventional enhanced oil recovery methods which has been of interest for more than six decades. However, the majority of the oil recovery mechanisms under ultrasound reported in the previous studies are theoretical. Emulsification is one of the mechanisms happening at the interface of oil and water in porous media under ultrasound. Oppositely, ultrasound is one of the techniques using in oil industry for demulsification of oil/water emulsion. Therefore, the conditions in which emulsification becomes dominant over demulsification under ultrasound should be more investigated. Duration of ultrasound radiation could be one of the factors affecting emulsification and demulsification processes. In this study a technique was developed to investigate the effect of long and short period of ultrasound radiation on emulsification and demulsification of paraffin oil and surfactant solution in porous media. For this purpose, the 2D glass Hele-shaw models were placed inside the ultrasonic bath under long and short period of radiation of ultrasound. A microscope was used above the model for microscopic studies on the interface of oil and water. Diffusion of phases and formation of emulsion were observed in both long and short period of application of ultrasound at the beginning of ultrasound radiation. However, by passing time, demulsification and coalescence of brine droplets inside emulsion was initiated in long period of ultrasound application. Therefore, it was concluded that emulsification could be one of the significant oil recovery mechanisms happening in porous media under short period of application of ultrasound.
超声技术是非常规强化采油方法之一，六十多年来一直备受关注。然而，以往研究报道的超声作用下的大多数采油机理都是理论性的。乳化是多孔介质中油和水界面在超声作用下发生的机理之一。相反，超声是石油工业中用于油/水乳液破乳的技术之一。因此，应进一步研究在超声作用下乳化比破乳占主导的条件。超声辐射时间可能是影响乳化和破乳过程的因素之一。在本研究中，开发了一种技术来研究长短不同时间段的超声辐射对多孔介质中石蜡油和表面活性剂溶液乳化和破乳的影响。为此，将二维玻璃赫雷肖模型置于超声浴中，进行长短不同时间段的超声辐射。在模型上方使用显微镜对油和水的界面进行微观研究。在超声辐射开始时，在长短不同时间段的超声作用下均观察到相的扩散和乳液的形成。然而，随着时间的推移，在长时间超声作用下，乳液中的盐水滴开始破乳和聚并。因此，得出的结论是，在短时间超声作用下，乳化可能是多孔介质中发生的重要采油机理之一。
