Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions
The separation of water-in-oil emulsions made with Azeri crude was investigated using natural gravity settling and microwave heating techniques. Separation times could be reduced by an order of magnitude compared with untreated emulsions. Increasing the salinity of the water phase leads to a 15% ave...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31942/ |
| _version_ | 1848794301687922688 |
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| author | Binner, Eleanor Robinson, John P. Silvester, S.A. Kingman, S.W. Lester, Edward |
| author_facet | Binner, Eleanor Robinson, John P. Silvester, S.A. Kingman, S.W. Lester, Edward |
| author_sort | Binner, Eleanor |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The separation of water-in-oil emulsions made with Azeri crude was investigated using natural gravity settling and microwave heating techniques. Separation times could be reduced by an order of magnitude compared with untreated emulsions. Increasing the salinity of the water phase leads to a 15% average decrease in the settling time for untreated emulsions compared with over 90% for microwave-heated emulsions. An image analysis technique showed that the observed increases in settling time could not be attributed to changes in viscosity alone. Significant coalescence of water droplets occurs during microwave heating, however the effects of coalescence and viscosity reduction cannot be completely decoupled. Despite this, it is clear that it is the thermal effect of microwave heating that leads to improvements in settling times, and that any advantages in microwave heating over conventional heating can be explained by selective heating of the aqueous phase rather than so-called non-thermal effects. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:14:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-31942 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:14:01Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-319422020-05-04T16:41:41Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31942/ Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions Binner, Eleanor Robinson, John P. Silvester, S.A. Kingman, S.W. Lester, Edward The separation of water-in-oil emulsions made with Azeri crude was investigated using natural gravity settling and microwave heating techniques. Separation times could be reduced by an order of magnitude compared with untreated emulsions. Increasing the salinity of the water phase leads to a 15% average decrease in the settling time for untreated emulsions compared with over 90% for microwave-heated emulsions. An image analysis technique showed that the observed increases in settling time could not be attributed to changes in viscosity alone. Significant coalescence of water droplets occurs during microwave heating, however the effects of coalescence and viscosity reduction cannot be completely decoupled. Despite this, it is clear that it is the thermal effect of microwave heating that leads to improvements in settling times, and that any advantages in microwave heating over conventional heating can be explained by selective heating of the aqueous phase rather than so-called non-thermal effects. Elsevier 2014-01-15 Article PeerReviewed Binner, Eleanor, Robinson, John P., Silvester, S.A., Kingman, S.W. and Lester, Edward (2014) Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions. Fuel, 116 . pp. 516-521. ISSN 1873-7153 Water-in-oil emulsion Microwave Coalescence Viscosity Interfacial tension Selective heating http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236113007709 doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2013.08.042 doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2013.08.042 |
| spellingShingle | Water-in-oil emulsion Microwave Coalescence Viscosity Interfacial tension Selective heating Binner, Eleanor Robinson, John P. Silvester, S.A. Kingman, S.W. Lester, Edward Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title | Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title_full | Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title_fullStr | Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title_short | Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| title_sort | investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating
enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions |
| topic | Water-in-oil emulsion Microwave Coalescence Viscosity Interfacial tension Selective heating |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31942/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31942/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31942/ |