Demulsification and extraction of biochemicals from crude and its fractions using water and subcritical/supercritical carbon dioxide as proton pump with ph tuning without precipitating oil components

Abstract

A demulsification process for extracting surface active biochemical products from crude oil and its fractions when they are used as feedstock during biochemical productions utilizes subcritical/supercritical COas a proton pump. The process also includes a pH tuning step, thereby inducing demulsification and precipitation of biochemical products into the aqueous phase, but avoiding asphaltene precipitation by apriori addition of resinous solvents derived from crude oil or bioresources. The biochemical products are then extracted from the aqueous phase via temperature change or some other technique.