Abstract
The present work experimentally investigates the impacts of low-frequency ultrasound waves on the removal of low crude-oil content (500 mg/L) emulsion from a crude oil wastewater unit. A total of 32 experiments were designed using Minitab. The study did not use chemical demulsifiers in the experiments and performed the experiments using a laboratory ultrasound bath at 25 kHz and 45 kHz frequencies. The tests were designed to assess the impacts of the ultrasonic frequency, ultrasonic irradiation time, ultrasound power, and wastewater temperature on the separation efficiency. Based on the results, 25 min of irradiation time at 30 °C and in an ultrasonic bath of 45 kHz and 50 W provided the optimal operating condition. Furthermore, the study used ImageJ to measure the droplet size distribution and the average diameter before and after the ultrasound radiation for all tests. These results showed that, in optimum conditions, crude oil emulsion separation efficiency increased by 72%.
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The authors would like to thank The Shiraz University of Technology for protecting this work. Also, the authors are grateful to South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company (SZOGPC) for their informational and financial supports.
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Parvasi, P., Kamali, F. & Talaghat, M.R. An experimental study on low-content crude oil in water emulsion using low-frequency ultrasonic waves. Braz. J. Chem. Eng. 39, 197–205 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43153-021-00215-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43153-021-00215-1