Abstract

A dehydrating additive acts by breaking the emulsion of the water contained in the crude oil, causing the drops to come together, increase in size and fall by gravity, thus separating. Esters have been proposed for this purpose, so the present work evaluated the use of palm oil ester (Elaeis guineensis) as a possible crude dehydrator. The research began with the obtaining of a biodiesel which was then glycosidated to produce the ester, both their compositions were known through the application of infrared spectroscopy (IR), showing only differences between the two in the period of 3100 and 3700 cm-1 due to glucose. A crude oil sample was characterized, turning out to be of a medium type according to the provisions of the American Petroleum Institute (API), it also presented a percentage (%) of water and sediments of two. Subsequently, the dehydrating product was formulated by adding Xylene to the glucosidated ester (90% Xylene-10% of the ester). Three concentrations were prepared (100, 200 and 300 ppm) and the bottle test was carried out, obtaining satisfactory results because the additive managed to break the emulsion and coalesced all the water contained in the crude to the lowest concentration (100 ppm) in a time of 60 min. By applying a non-parametric Fredman test (a= 0.05) it was shown that there are no statistically significant differences between the proposed dehydrating agent and a commercial one. It was concluded that the product is efficient for the use that was required.

Keywords: Dehydrating additive; ester; spectroscopy; bottle test; transesterification; emulsion