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| Introduction | My name is John S. Eow. Currently I am doing my PhD programme under the supervision of Professor Mojtaba Ghadiri and Dr Adel Sharif at the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey. My research project is on the coalescence of water drops dispersed in dielectric oil under high electrostatic fields. | ||||||||||||||||||
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The coalescence of water drops in water-in-oil dispersions are very important in the chemical industries, especially in the petroleum and oil industries. The presence of water drops in crude oil is highly undesirable as it can lead to several problems outlined below: (1) Technical problems in the offshore production of petroleum. (2) The expense of pumping or transporting the water via pipeline or tanker. (3) The corrosion of pipework, pumps, production equipment and downstream overhead distillation columns. (4) Additional production equipment required to give export quality crude oil. (5) The poisoning of dowstream refinery catalysts. (6) Problems associated with increased crude oil viscosity as a consequence of finely dispersed water within the crude oil. Therefore, it is highly desirable to have a good separation method for the separation of water drops from the oil continuous phase. Generally, the electrostatic method is very suitable as it does not pollute the crude oil and it is very cheap and efficient, compared to other conventional methods such as chemical separation, heating, and filtration. However, most of the electrocoalescer currently in the market are huge and expensive. We believe that the development of a small, portable and economical electrocoalescer should be of great interest to the separation industry. In order to achieve this objective, a great fundamental understanding of the underlying principles governing the electrocoalescene of aqueous drops in dielectric oil under high electrostatic fields is very crucial here. | Electrostatic Enhancement of the Coalescence of Water Drops in Oil | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Our Objectives and Contributions |
Therefore the research programme has been structured in such a way to look at the effects of each of the factors below on efficiency of electrocoalescence of water drops in oil: (1) The type of applied electric field, such as a.c., d.c. and pulsed d.c. (2) The magnitude and frequency of the pulsed d.c. electric field applied. (3) The droplet size with respect to the physical system. (4) The flow rate of the dispersion. (5) The physical and chemical properties of various liquid-liquid systems. (6) The fraction of the dispersed phase to the continuous phase, and (7) The negative effects of the high electric field, such as drop deformation and breakup. We have obtained some very interesting and useful results on some of the above-mentioned aspects. For more information on this project, please feel free to email me on [email protected] or Prof. Mojtaba Ghadiri on [email protected] or Dr Adel Sharif on [email protected] Besides from Prof. Ghadiri and Dr Sharif, I have also benefited from the constructive comments given by the other members of our group, i.e. Prof. Shuji Matsusaka (a visiting professor from Kyoto University), Dr. Chris Hodges, Dr. Joseph Antony, Antonio Speranza, Hasan Ahmed, Jesus Subero, Charlotte Couroyer, Roberto Moreno, Chih Kwan, and Reza Samimi. I would also like to acknowledge the helps and supports provided by hardworking workshop technicians like Mr. Bryan Inch, Mr. Gerrard Shurlock, as well as the other people whose names are not mentioned here. Thanks are also due to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom and University of Surrey for financial support. I have also benefited from the assistance of provided by diligent students like Miss Antonella Citro (a visiting student from University of Salerno, Italy) and Miss Iman Elmadi. | ||||||||||||||||||
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