Application of a novel surface modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles as chemical demulsifiers for breaking water-in-crude oil emulsion

Produced crude oil is frequently in the form of W/O emulsion. Chemical demulsification is a commonly method to separate water in crude oil emulsion. However, there is a need to enhance this technique to become environmental friendly and economically competitive. Therefore, in this research, using nanotechnology led to reducing the amount of conventional demulsifier consumption in the demulsification process and unexpectedly greatly improving the demulsification efficiency of conventional demulsifier. Thus, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were functionalized with different organic moieties of APTES (aminopropyl triethoxysilan) and PhTES (phenyltriethoxysilane) using a post-grafting method to improve the performance of conventional chemical demulsifier. The prepared mesoporous silica nanoparticles were characterized by TEM, XRD, FT-IR, DLS and BET. Furthermore, the demulsification performance of nanodemulsifiers was evaluated by bottle test. Moreover, the effect of nanodemulsifier dosages, salt and temperature on DE (demulsification efficiency) was studied. The results demonstrate all parameters have an impact on the stability of W/O emulsion and MSN-APTES has the DE to a value of 90% in optimum concentration in the present of a commercial demulsifier. Simultaneous use of APTES functionalized MSNs and a conventional demulsifier reduces the IFT at the water-crude oil interface.