Petroleo Brasileiro S.a. - Petrobras

Ricardo Andre Guarnieri

Cláudio Dariva

Montserrat Fortuny Heredia

Alexandre Ferreira Santos

Bianca Machado Da Silva Ferreira

Lisiane Dos Santos Freitas

Regina Celia Lourenco Guimarães

Maria De Fatima Pereira Dos Santos

Rita De Cássia Bomfim Lemos

A process for the treatment of water/oil (W/O) emulsions is described which includes the addition of an ionic liquid, under heating, to a water/oil emulsion containing between 0.5% and 85% of water per volume as a dispersion phase, until the concentration of the ionic liquid in the emulsion remains within the range of 0.01 &#x3bc;L/g to 100 &#x3bc;L/g. The ionic liquid used is a salt of a general CAformula in a liquid state at temperatures below 150&#xb0; C., where Ais an anion and Cis a cation, which has at least a hydrophobic alkyl chain connected to a cation group. The heating method includes conventional heating and heating via microwaves. In the heating via microwaves, the salts of the general CAformula present synergic behavior in separation efficiency in relation to conventional heating.

Process for treatment of water/oil emulsions

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ricardo Andre Guarnieri