Oil in water characterization by dynamic optical fluid imaging technology

Oil in water content is traditionally analyzed by spectrophotometer after being extracted with solvents. The analysis completed can only quantify the oil content in the water. In the enclosed study, dynamic optical fluid imaging (DOFI) technology is used to characterize the oil in produced water before and after treatment by three reverse emulsion breakers (REBs). The DOFI analysis is quick and can quantify the oil/solids content along with oil droplet sizes and size distribution using a small amount of sample. More importantly, the analysis can help understand the behavior and the performance of REBs in water clarification. The results from the DOFI analysis show that the application of REBs removed oil/solids from water by reducing the amount of oil droplets/solids of all sizes. A more effective REB helped remove more oil droplets of all sizes and removed larger oil droplets completely. As a result, the average oil droplet size became smaller after the application of REBs. The findings from the DOFI analysis suggest that in the deoiling process, REBs cause oil droplets of all sizes to coalesce, making them larger and easier to remove. An additional finding was that there is no correlation between interfacial activity and deoiling performance for the REBs used in the study.