Investigation Of Droplet Coalescence And Oil-water Separation Characteristics Of Insulated Electrode In Electric Dehydrator

Electric dehydration device is an indispensable part of the oil-water separation system inthe oil field. In china, traditional electric dehydrator is used in most of the processing stationand combined station at present. But the traditional electric dehydrator collapses frequently.As the oil field exploitation entering the middle and later periods, the oil-water separation inthe electric dehydrator will be more and more difficult because of the use of the polymerflooding and varieties of additives. So for the electric dehydration process, the modificationof internal electrode structures and the optimization of operating parameters are imperative.Transparent electric dehydrator and flat insulted electrode were designed to study thedroplet coalescence and oil-water separation characteristics of insulted electrode undervarious electrical and flow parameters. The droplet coalescence properties of the lactescencebetween insulated electrodes in the new dehydrator have been studied systematically. Basedon the small-sized electric dehydrator, the droplet coalescence properties of different electricfield parameters, different flow field parameters and different water-oil emulsions have alsobeen discussed.The study results showed that the oil-water separation efficiency was closely related tothe electric field intensity, frequency, oil property, components, flow rate and water content.electric field intensity was the key factor while frequency had a bit impact on separationefficiency. When the viscosity of the continuous phase was lower, the electric conductivitywas smaller, and the electric dehydrator efficiency went up as the result of the simpler oilcomponent. When oil was the continuous phase, the droplet coalescence phenomenon becamemore obvious with the increase of water content. What’s more, the oil-waiter separationturned into more effective with the rise of droplet size. When high viscosity oils wereinvestigated, a high water content emulsion layer would easily form at the low flow rate.Because of this layer, the separation efficiency decreased. And with the increase oftemperature, the droplet coalescence effect rose.