Synthesis and characterization of a novel reticulated multi-branched fluorinated polyether demulsifier for w/o emulsion demulsification

In order to solve the problem of demulsification of Liaohe heavy oil W/O emulsion, phenolamine resin initiator was synthesized based on p-trifluoromethyl phenol in this paper. Polyether product was synthesized by block polymerization technology, and then toluene diisocyanate (TDI) was added for crosslinking modification, thus synthesizing a new fluorinated block polyether demulsifier called reticulated branched fluorinated (RBF). Apart from that, the structure of fluorinated polyether demulsifier was characterized by FTIR spectrum, and the surface activity of fluorinated polyether demulsifier was determined by measuring the surface tension and interfacial tension, and the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of RBF demulsifier was also determined. The demulsification and dehydration experiment of Liaohe crude oil emulsion was carried out. The microscopic demulsification process was analyzed and the demulsification mechanism was discussed. The experimental results showed that the synthesized RBF series fluorinated polyether demulsifier had excellent demulsification performance on Liaohe water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion. Such a result was attributed to the reticulated multi-branched structure which increased the ability of demulsifier to replace the interfacial film, so the new interfacial film was easy to break to gather with other water droplets, thus resulting in the destruction of the W/O emulsion stabilization system. When TDI dosage was 4% of polyether demulsifier mass, demulsification temperature was 60 ℃, and demulsifier dosage was 50 mg/L, the dehydration rate of RBF4 reached 95.64%, which was about 18% higher than that of demulsifier LX21. This paper provides a new type of high-efficiency demulsifier to solve the demulsification problem of heavy oil W/O emulsion in Liaohe Oilfield.