Water in oil emulsion droplet size characterization using a pulsed field gradient with diffusion editing (PFG-DE) NMR technique

This paper describes a proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique, pulsed field gradient with diffusion editing (PFG-DE), to quantify drop size distributions of brine/crude oil emulsions. The drop size distributions obtained from this technique were compared to results from the traditional pulsed field gradient (PFG) technique. The PFG-DE technique provides both transverse relaxation (T2T2) and drop size distributions simultaneously. In addition, the PFG-DE technique does not assume a form of the drop size distribution. An algorithm for the selection of the optimal parameters to use in a PFG-DE measurement is described in this paper. The PFG-DE technique is shown to have the ability to resolve drop size distributions when the T2T2 distribution of the emulsified brine overlaps either the crude oil or the bulk brine T2T2 distribution. Finally, the PFG-DE technique is shown to have the ability to resolve a bimodal drop size distribution.

Graphical abstractAn NMR technique is introduced that has the ability to resolve transverse relaxation and drop size distributions simultaneously of unimodal and bimodal water/oil emulsions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide