Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

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Egyptian Journal of Petroleum

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Treatment of Algerian crude oil using REB09305 OS demulsifier

Omar Ben Mya a,⇑, Saad Houga a,b, Fatma Chihouba a, Brahim Asla b
a
Department of Chemical Engineering & Petrochemistry, University of El Oued, 39000-El Oued, Algeria
b
Direction of Laboratories and Central Carotheque, Analysis Department, Industrial Zone, Hassi Messaoud, Ouargla, Algeria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Algerian crude oil was submitted to a treatment procedure using REB09305 OS demulsifier. Temperature,
Received 6 June 2017 time of contact with charge and centrifugation speed were studied. Separation of water from crude oil
Revised 1 November 2017 was observed with a demulsification ratio of 100% in ambient temperature for 20 ppm demulsifier dose,
Accepted 12 November 2017
1200 rpm and 45 min of centrifugation time. The results obtained in this study showed that REB09305 OS
Available online xxxx
demulsifier can be considered a promising product for the treatment of industrial crude oil and the
removal of water from it.
Keywords:
Ó 2017 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open
Crude oil
Hassi Berkine
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Demulsifier
Treatment
Desalination

1. Introduction tributed in finite globules in the other. Water/Oil emulsion is

Algeria is the OPEC’s largest Member Country in geographic
area in Africa. The fossil energies sources are the engine of the
economy. Algeria proven crude oil reserves of 12,200 million barrels,
which produces 1,157.1(1000 b/d) and exports 642.2(1000 b/d)
[1,2]. The Algerian crude oil has a high-quality light according to
its very low content in sulphur and minerals. Sonatrach is the
Algerian oil and gas company [3].
The high-water content (or the presence of emulsion) in crude
oil is inimical to the quality of petroleum products and it is one
major challenge confronting the production of internationally
acceptable crude oil of high quality. The presence of water in crude
oil presents a number of problems to its production, transportation
and processing leading to increased down-time in the petroleum
industries. These problems include [4,5]: Limitation of space in
the processing and transporting vessels leading to reduced net effi-
ciency of the vessels, corrosion of production plant parts and
pipelines, an effect which is further enhanced by the presence of
dissolved salts in the water phase, emulsion formation may also
lead to reduced oil recovery and consequently, environmental con-
cerns due to appreciable oil content of the effluent water and low-
ering of API gravity. This is called emulsion phenomenon which
means a type of colloidal dispersion consisting of two incompletely
miscible liquids, one (the dispersed or internal phase) being dis-
Peer review under responsibility of Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: omar-benmya@univ-eloued.dz (O. Ben Mya).
formed when water was dispersed in oil [6–8]. Water is used as
a piston to push the crude out of the well during the process of
oil production and for cleaning salts which poison refinery cata-
lysts and enhance corrosion problems during refinery treatment.
Agitation of a water and crude oil mixture may yield stable
water-in-oil emulsion in which water remains dispersed for a long
period of time [9]. In oil industry, specifications and standards on
pipelines should be respected, especially in BS&W value and salts
content [10].
Demulsification is the chemical process of separation between
two immiscible liquids, while checking the following aspects: Rate
of separation; Amount of water left in the crude oil after separa-
tion; Quality of separated water [11,12].
In this article, the optimal conditions for crude oil – water sep-
aration were determined. Afterwards, the best amount of demulsi-
fier thus its contact time with the crude is sought. Finally, the
salinity of crude has been calculated.
1.1. Description of Hassi Berkine Oil Field
The Hassi Berkine Oil Field (HBNS) was discovered in January of
1995. It is located in the Berkine Basin, over 950 km of Algiers. The
reservoir is of Triassic age, consisting of a recurrent sequence of
vertically stacked and laterally contiguous fluvial channel sands.
The main producing intervals are the Upper and Middle Triassic
(TAGI sands), with reservoir depths ranging between 3000 and
3100 m. Virgin formation pressure was approximately 5050 psia
and the reservoir temperature is approximately 197 °F. The rock

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.11.004
1110-0621/Ó 2017 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: O. Ben Mya et al., Treatment of Algerian crude oil using REB09305 OS demulsifier, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.11.004
2 O. Ben Mya et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

properties of the TAGI sands are generally very good. Average net
reservoir porosity is in the order of 17.0% and ranges between
10.0 and 24.0%. Average net permeability to air is around 300 mD
and ranges between 1.0 and 2000 mD. Irreducible water saturation
is dependent on rock quality but typically ranges between 5.0 and
25.0%. The HBNS reservoir fluid is under saturated oil with a bubble
point pressure of approximately 2930 psia. The stock tank fluid has
a density of 0.81 g/cc (42 °API) and the GOR is approximately 1130
MSCF/STB. Initial production at HBNS began in May 1998 with over
100 MMBO produced to 1 August 2002. The Reservoir Develop-
ment Plan (RDP) calls for crestal reinjection of all produced gas
with a peripheral waterflood. The current injection gas is multi
contact miscible with the reservoir oil with a Minimum Miscibility
Pressure (MMP) of between 3750 and 4000 psia. Current operating
practices do not allow the reservoir pressure to fall below the bub-
ble point pressure in the water flood area or below the MMP in the
gas flood area. Future field development may include the installa-
tion of a full-field Water Alternating Gas (WAG) flood and the
extraction of the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) from the produced
gas stream [13].
1.2. Composition of crude oil
satellite manifolds, by means of an electric dosing pump. A point
for taking the crude at Train1 was provided for the evaluation of
the demulsifier. The crude sample was taken every morning and
then rapidly transported to the laboratory where it is analyzed.
Three parameters are determined for the choice of a good demul-
sifier: The salinity of crude oil for shipment in which international
standards recommend a salinity oil not exceeding 40 ppm (mg/l) to
avoid corrosion on the trains and oven [16]; The BS&W and resid-
ual water.
The salts extracted from oil by washing with hot water were
dosed by silver nitrates according to the reaction:
The formation of AgCl (White Precipitate) first compared to Ag
Cr2O7 Because the solubility of AgCl is lower than that of Ag Cr2O7
(red precipitate), the indicator used is K2Cr2O7. The salinity is
expressed in mg of NaCl per liter of crude and given by the follow-
ing simplified formula [17,18]

Crude oil is composed from many compounds, while most of mg  0:1
them are hydrocarbons. The table below (Table 1) shows the spec- Salinity of NaCl ¼ V 1  58:45 
l V 2 ðsampleÞ
ification of an Algerian crude oil taken from a nearby location and
similar to crude oil from Hassi Berkine [14]. 58.45: molecular weight of NaCl.
V1: Volume of AgNO3.
0.1: Normality of AgNO3.
2. Materials and methods
V2: volume of the sample taken in ml.

A preliminary study was conducted to find out the best condi-

tions for separation to obtain the best result in BS&W, HBNS crude
oil. The centrifuging speed, time and the temperature of the oil
during centrifuging are the factors effected on the amount of water
obtained (Fig. 1). Four graduated bulbs (100 ml) of crude oil (20
°C), after equilibration, were subjected to a different centrifugation
conditions. BS&W percentage was calculated using the conven-
tional formula below [15]:
water þ sediment
BS&Wð%Þ ¼  100
water þ sediment þ oil
REB 09305 OS is a demulsifier manufactured by Baker Petrolite
company, it composes from: 60 to 100% of petroleum naphta, 5–
10% of alkoxylated amine, heavy aromatic naphta and ethylben-
zene and 1–5% of isopropanol, xylene and naphthalene was
injected continuously upstream of the manifold, as far as possible
from the separators, at three different points on the pipes from the
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2 shows the BS&W percentage in different conditions of
separation process.
After centrifugation of oil with ambient temperature (20 °C)
during 15 min, it is noted that as the centrifuging speed increases,
the amounts of water and sediment increase and then stabilize at
1200 rpm. This shows that at this rate, all amounts of water and
sediment are separated from the oil (Fig. 2a). Under this rate, with
the same crude oil temperature when the centrifuging time
increases, the amount of sediment increases and then stabilizes
after 45 min (Fig. 2b). Finally, under 1200 rpm for 45 min, it was
found that the temperature range of 20–40 °C is the best to obtain
a full elimination of water and sediment (Fig. 2c).
BS&W and residual water parameters were studied as a func-
tion of demulsifier concentration at the end of the different contact

Table 1
Algerian condensate – summary crude oil assay report.

Source of sample Light hydrocarbon analysis Assay summary/TBP data

Reference: M13ALG1 H2S* ppm wt – Gravity (°API) 68.6
Methane %wt 0.00 Sulphur (%wt) 0.002
Name: Algerian Condensate Ethane %wt 0.01
Propane %wt 0.02 Yield on Crude %wt %vol
Origin: Algeria Isobutane %wt 0.16 Gas to C4 (corrected) 1.90 2.31
n-Butane %wt 1.70 Light Distillate to 149 °C 77.39 78.70
Sample Date: 26-09-2013 Isopentane %wt 6.27 Kerosene 149–232 °C 18.25 16.85
n-Pentane %wt 10.02 Gas Oil 232–369 °C 2.30 2.01
Cyclopentane %wt 0.30 Vacuum Gas Oil 369 °C - 550 °C 0.16 0.13
C6 paraffins %wt 15.94 Residue above 550 °C 0.00 0.00
C6 naphthenes %wt 2.34
Benzene %wt 2.51
Comments: *Dissolved in liquid Volume expansion:0.0 per cent vol on crude distributed across whole
distillation

Please cite this article in press as: O. Ben Mya et al., Treatment of Algerian crude oil using REB09305 OS demulsifier, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.11.004
 O. Ben Mya et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 1. BS&W separation from HBNS crude oil.

Fig. 2. BS &W separation optimal conditions.

periods with the crude oil. The results of bottle tests obtained are
grouped in the table below: (see Table 2)
It is noted that the percentage of waste water increases with the
concentration of the demulsifier. It goes from 1.8% to 2% for doses
of 20 to 25 ppm. Beyond this range, the amount of water decreases
to 1.4% for a dosage of 40 ppm. The product efficiency increases up
to 40% for a dose in the range between 20 ppm and 25 ppm.
Beyond this, the amount of emulsified water decreases. It reaches
the value 62.5% after 20 min of injection of 25 ppm of demulsifier
and decreases to 60% for a dosage of 40 ppm. For a contact time of
30 min, it is observed that the efficiency increases to 68.75%, for a
dosage of 20 ppm and decreases to 50% for a dosage of 40 ppm. It is
also observed that the percentage of waste water increases by 8%
for a dosage of 20 ppm for 1 h, equivalent to 100% efficiency of
the product studied, where above this concentration, Efficacy
remains constant and almost the case after 2 and 4 h.
Fig. 3 shows the evolution of salinity as a function of time (days)
at Train1 level. On 02 March, there was a disturbance in the injec-
tion (a low dose of 12 ppm) which caused an increase in salinity to
54 mg/l. From 05 to 08 March, the injection of 20 ppm resulted in a
further salinity drop of 18–20 mg/l. Throughout the test, the tem-
perature remains at room temperature, we note that to reach an
acceptable salinity of 18–20 mg/l, the REB 09305 demulsifier must
be injected at a flow rate of the order of 20 ppm. This correspond to

Please cite this article in press as: O. Ben Mya et al., Treatment of Algerian crude oil using REB09305 OS demulsifier, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.11.004
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Table 2
REB 09305OS dosage for different contact times.

Dosage Contact period

5 min 10 min 20 min 30 min 1h 2h 4h
5 ppm % Water 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
% BS&W 1.25 2.5 5 10 12.5 15 17.5
10 ppm % Water 0.3 0.5 0.8 1.6 2.1 2.5 2.7
% BS&W 3.75 6.25 10 20 26.25 31.25 33.75
15 ppm % Water 1.4 1.8 2 3 4.6 5 6.5
% BS&W 17.5 22.5 25 37.5 57.5 68.75 81.25
20 ppm % Water 2 3.2 3.8 5.5 8 8 8
% BS&W 25 40 47.5 68.75 100 100 100
25 ppm % Water 1.8 3 5 5 8 8 8
% BS&W 22.5 37.5 62.5 62.5 100 100 100
40 ppm % Water 1.4 2.5 4.8 4 8 8 8
% BS&W 17.5 31.25 60 50 100 100 100

Fig. 3. Evolution of salinity after 20 ppm of demulsifier injection.

an average dose (depending on the flow rate of the feed to be References

treated).
The NaCl molecules are surrounded (impregnated) by a circle
formed by water molecules linked together by hydrogen bonds.
Hot water causes the release of crude NaCl because the water
molecules prefer single solvation of ions which are less soluble in
the crude.
4. Conclusion
The experimental studies show that the treatment product is
effective at a dosage of 20 ppm. The product nature of REB-
09305 OS depends on the physical and chemical characteristics
of Hassi Berkine’s oil. The effectiveness of the demulsifier is related
to its contact time with the charge and to demulsify crude oil, the
study should be extended to other oil treatment centers in order to
solve the emulsion problem.
Acknowledgment
Authors highly thank SONATRACH, the Algerian Petroleum
Company for the facilities provided for this research.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.11.004.
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Please cite this article in press as: O. Ben Mya et al., Treatment of Algerian crude oil using REB09305 OS demulsifier, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), https://doi.org/
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