Dehydration of heavy crude oil emulsions using novel imidazolium-based poly ionic liquids

Sea water/ heavy crude oil emulsions are highly stable and cause serious industrial problems. Amphiphilic poly ionic liquids (ILs) as environmentally safe chemicals can be used as highly efficient demulsifiers to for W/O emulsions. In the present work, two imidazolium-based poly ionic liquids (IMPIL-1 and IMPIL-2) were prepared via one pot modified Debus-Radziszewski reaction by the interaction of triethylenetetramine or diethylenetriamine with glyoxal and formaldhyde in aqeous acetic acid solution. The prepared PILs were after that reacted with glycidyl 4-nonylphenyl ether through the epoxy ring opening to produce two amphiphilic PILs. 1HNMR, DLS and drop shape analyzer were utilized to verify their chemical structures and surface properties of the prepared PILs. The surface properties of AIMPIL-1 and AIMPIL-2 and their ability to reduce the IFT of sea water/ crude oil interface recommended their application as demulsfiers for W/O emulsions. Factors affecting the demulsification properties like relative solubility index, Demulsifier dose and separation time were investigated. The results confirmed the high efficiency of AIMPIL-1 and AIMPIL-2 to act as demulsifiers for W/O emulsions with a priority to the less aminated AIMPIL-1 that reached 100% for emulsion compositions (30/70 and 10/90 vol%). •Simple and easy preparation method were used to synthesis new amphiphilic imPILs.•High demulsification performance of the prepared poly imidazolium ILs.•The prepared amphiphilic imPILs were able to interact and disperse asphaltene particles.•The demulsification mechanism was studied using interfacial tension, zeta potential and microscopic measurements.