Investigations of crude-oil emulsions at the micro-to-nano scales
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ArticleAuthors
Ravaux, FlorentMedina, Sandra Constanza
Behzad, Ali Reza
Zafar, Humaira
George, Abraham
Morin, Stephane
Ghaffour, NorEddine

Anjum, Dalaver H.
KAUST Department
Environmental Science and Engineering ProgramBiological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division
Imaging and Characterization Core Lab
Bioscience Core Lab
Electron Microscopy
Date
2021-12-08Online Publication Date
2021-12Print Publication Date
2022-04Embargo End Date
2023-12-01Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/673964
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The removal of the micro droplets of emulsified water from crude oil causes high cost and energy. In this paper we show that cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM) imaging of micro and nano emulsions prepared from United Arab Emirate based crude oil provides critical information on their stability. Specifically, the cryoSEM imaging analysis applied to emulsion of murban-2019, and upper zakum-2019 crude-oils allowed determining naturally occurring surfactants in these crude-oils. Moreover, the applied method also turned out to be an efficient way to qualitatively investigate the effect of synthetic surfactant on the stability of the emulsions. The high resolution cryoTEM imaging analysis of emulsions from upper zakum-2019 sample enabled visualizing “bilayer” of naturally occurring surfactants, presumably the asphaltene. The cryoTEM analysis further allowed estimating the volume-fraction of emulsified water in the crude-oil at nanoscales and turned out to be about 1% for the upper zakum-2019 samples.Citation
Ravaux, F., Medina, S., Behzad, A. R., Zafar, H., George, A., Morin, S., … Anjum, D. H. (2021). Investigations of crude-oil emulsions at the micro-to-nano scales. Fuel, 122692. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2021.122692Sponsors
The authors extend their appreciation to Khalifa University’s Faculty Startup (FSU) program for partially funding this research work under the project ID: FSU-2020-04, 2020 and to Abu Dhabi, and to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the use of cryo-EM equipment.Publisher
Elsevier BVJournal
FuelAdditional Links
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0016236121025588ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.fuel.2021.122692