title: A Study of the Effect of Surfactants on the Aggregation Behavior of Crude Oil Aqueous Dispersions through Steady-State Fluorescence Spectrometry.
abstract: Unconventional crude oil as heavy, extra heavy, bitumen, tight, and shale oils will meet 10% of worldwide needs for 2035, perhaps earlier. Petroleum companies will face problems concerning crude oil extraction, production, transport, and refining, and some of these are addressed by the use of surfactants and other chemicals. For example, water-in-crude oil emulsions are frequently found during the production of mature wells where enhanced recovery techniques have been deployed. Nevertheless, the selection of adequate surfactant, dosage, type of water (sea, tap or oilfield), kind of crude oil (light, heavy, extra heavy, tight, shale, bitumen) affect the effectivity of treatment and usual bottle tests give limited information. We developed a fluorescence technique to study the effect of surfactants on medium, heavy, and extra heavy crude oil employing the natural fluorophore molecules from petroleum. We first carried out the characterization of commercial and synthetic surfactants, then dispersions of petroleum in water were studied by steady-state fluorometry and the size of petroleum aggregates were measured. The aggregation of petroleum incremented from medium to extra heavy crude oil and we discussed the effect of different surfactants on such aggregation.
authors.affiliation: 1 CONACYT-Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, A.C., Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.
authors.forename: Alba A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Vallejo-Cardona
authors.affiliation: 1 CONACYT-Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, A.C., Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.|2 Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cerón-Camacho
authors.affiliation: 2 Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Karamath
authors.affiliation: 2 Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-Palou
authors.affiliation: 2 Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aburto
keywords: Petroleum; asphaltene precipitation; crude oil aqueous dispersions; fluorescence spectrometry; oil-in-water emulsions; surfactants