Design and Implementation of the Frequency Control in an Ultrasonic Break Water-in-Oil Emulsion Chamber

Water-in-oil emulsions present high stability and its separation is commonly accelerated by addition of chemical demulsifiers or using electrostatic techniques. An alternative to reduce the amount of demulsifiers is the use of ultrasonic standing waves. In this work, the design and implementation of an ultrasonic demulsifier system operating in the 1 MHz range is presented. The design includes the ultrasonic resonant chamber, the power electronics to drive the piezoelectric transducers and the control system. The control must track the operating frequency, compensating the changes due to temperature variation. The system was evaluated in a laboratory pipeline showing that the use of ultrasound reduces the final water content in all cases.