Calcium phosphates synthesized from coralline materials (Porites) and their application as a demulsifier for water–oil separation

ABSTRACT

Crude oil extraction is a hot topic concerning industrial applications. The extracted oil emulsions treatment with demulsifier is demanded for markets. Herein, we prepared a naturally based demulsifier comprising calcium phosphates from coralline materials. The XRD verifies successful formation of the intended calcium phosphate with characteristic peaks where the most intense peak at 30º for (211) plane matched well with card and former research. The SEM reveals the formation of the spherical, flowery shape. Zeta potential reaches −10 mV indicating reasonable stability of the demulsifier. For examining the separation efficiency using the bottle test, few drops of the demulsifer (~100 ppm) are enough for the separation at 55°C for 40 min in the water bath. Inherently, the separation initiates within few seconds. The extended results for the demulsifier are applied onto the ASH field (Borg Alarab, Egypt) and compared to other companies reports. The optimum separation efficiency for salt and water contents from crude oil reaches 9 PTB and 0.1%vol, respectively, after treatment by heating unit (Sigma package). The recommended values for these factors are 30 PTB and 2%vol. The efficiency of separation exceeds 99% for water and salt. This direction is significantly important for oil production and industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Coralline materials (Porities)
• Phosphate
• Solid state
• ion exchange
• Hydroxyapatite
• co-precipitation
• demulsifier
• crude oil

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data processed or investigated throughout this study are introduced in the article (and its supplementary information files).

Statement of novelty

The successful acquisition of the oil and its separation from water and other contaminations is demanded. The rising necessity of the successful demulsifier is propagating progressively. Motivated by this point, we introduced our naturally synthesized and eco-friendly calcium phosphates to employ them in the desired area of water–oil separation. The intended demulsifier was tested in a real field at the western desert in Egypt, for Burpetco petroleum company. Inherently, (within less than 5 s) after the insertion of small amount of the demulsifier (~100 ppm) to the crude oil, the significant interface between the water and oil was clearly obtained. The acquired results were compared to other reports such as Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI) and else. Our outcomes reveal a significant enhancement in the speed of separation, efficiency, as well as less concentration of the demulsifier. Furthermore, the demulsifier is prepared from environmentally safe constitutes and the separated water might be functioned without any harm to the underground water and the environment.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2023.2240952