Polymer-Coated Nanoparticles for Reversible Emulsification and Recovery of Heavy Oil

Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids
Luqing QiRafael Verduzco

Abstract

Heavy crude oil has poor solubility and a high density, making recovery and transport much more difficult and expensive than for light crude oil. Emulsifiers can be used to produce low viscosity oil-in-water emulsions for recovery and transport, but subsequent demulsification can be challenging. Here, we develop and implement interfacially active, pH-responsive polymer-coated nanoparticles (PNPs) to reversibly stabilize, recover, and break oil/water emulsions through variation of solution pH. Silica particles with poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (DMAEMA) chains covalently grafted to the surface are prepared although a reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer grafting-through technique. The resulting DMAEMA PNPs can stabilize emulsions of high viscosity Canadian heavy oil at PNP concentrations as low as 0.1 wt % and at neutral pH. The performance of the DMAEMA PNPs exceeds that of DMAEMA homopolymer additives, which we attribute to the larger size and irreversible adsorption of DMAEMA PNPs to the oil/water interface. After recovery, the emulsion can be destabilized by the addition of acid to reduce pH, resulting in separation and settling of the heavy oil from the aqueous phase. Recovery of more than 10 wt % of...Continue Reading

References

Sep 20, 2006·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Sheikh ShahalomBrian R Saunders
Feb 24, 2007·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Bernard P BinksWilliam J Frith
Jun 1, 2007·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Bernard P Binks, Jhonny A Rodrigues
Sep 14, 2010·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Trishna SaigalRobert D Tilton
Mar 12, 2013·Journal of Colloid and Interface Science·Hitesh G BagariaKeith P Johnston
Apr 11, 2013·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·A J MorseR Swart
May 24, 2014·The Journal of Chemical Physics·K Michael SalernoGary S Grest

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Citations

Jun 5, 2019·Journal of Biomaterials Science. Polymer Edition·Xue MiYu Liu
Jan 22, 2019·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Joshua D WillottWiebe M de Vos
Aug 1, 2018·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Qinmo LuoEmily Pentzer
May 10, 2019·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Xiaopeng PeiPixin Wang

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