REAL-TIME ON-LINE SENSING AND CONTROL OF EMULSIONS IN FORMATION FLUIDS

• Main Authors: SMITH, JAMES KEVYN, LOPEZ, THOMAS H, MEANS, C. MITCH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 17.02.2005
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; FUELS; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; LUBRICANTS; MEASURING; MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUIDLEVEL; METALLURGY; METERING BY VOLUME; MINERAL WAXES; PEAT; PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; PHYSICS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVEHYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, ORGASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; TESTING

Real time determination of the presence of emulsion (110) in a formation flu id (110, 112, 114) is accomplished using an optical probe (102A, B, C), preferably an attenuated total reflectance probe. The determination can then be used to appropriately increase, decrease or leave unchanged the use of demulsification additives (130) or other means to control emulsion formation . The method is particularly useful for free water knock-out (104) separations , where a plurality of probes (102A, B, C) can be used to distinguish the location and/or volume of emulsion, or 11rag'l, layer (110) and thereby to facilitate decantation of relatively pure oil (112) and water (114) fraction s. It can also be effectively used in pipelines, and can optionally determine t he degree of emulsification and trends toward emulsification or demulsification .