Experimental Investigation of Fe3O4-Chitosan Nanocomposite as a Nano-Demulsifier for Water in Crude Oil Separation

Nowadays chemical and electrostatic demulsification techniques are typically used to separate water-in-crude-oil emulsions. The need to improve demulsification techniques has led to the use of various additives among which nanoparticles have emerged as a novel alternative. Most of the exploited crude oil exists in an emulsion state, where may cause serious problems during processing. Chemical demulsifiers, bottle tests, and electrostatic desalters are commonly used to separate water from crude oil emulsions but there are some issues involved with these methods. Therefore, using new technologies like nanotechnology can help improve the desalting process. First, Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-chitosan nanocomposite were synthesized via co-precipitation method. Fe3O4-chitosan nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that ultrafine Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared and coated by chitosan. In this study, Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-chitosan nanocomposite were utilized to improve emulsion destabilization. The effect of different parameters on the separation performance was studied and the best conditions were determined. The results showed that the application of certain nanostructures in crude oil emulsions improves the performance of demulsification up to 86% and decreases the amount of demulsifier consumption in the desalting process.