(531a) The Research on a Polyamidoamine-Based Demulsifier for Oil/Water Separation

Oil-in-water emulsions widely exist in the waste water resulted from polymer flooding oil recovery process. Because there are large amounts of interfacial active substance and ultrafine oil droplets in this kind of emulsion, it is very hard to treat with traditional methods. To effectively deal with this kind of emulsion with ultrafine oil droplets and highly concentrated surfactants, one kind of chemical method, demulsification is adopted. In this thesis, the synthesized 3rd generation polyamidoamine (PAMAM) was studied as a typical demulsifier. FTIR and MNR were applied to analyze the molecular structure of the demulsifier. The influences of temperature, settling time, and concentration of the demulsifier used on the efficiency of the demulsifier were investigated in detail. At the optimal operating condition (demulsification time: 120 min; demulsification temperature: 30 °C; demulsifier concentration: 1500 mg L-1), the oil removal rate of the demulsifier could reach more than 90%. The surface tension and interfacial tension at the diesel− water interface were also measured to give a basic understanding of the demulsification mechanism.