3. Results
Overall, the behaviour of 12 emulsions of Azeri crude oil and
water were investigated, and the compositions of these emulsions
are shown in Table 1.
The interface height was monitored after completion of the
microwave heating process, for different heating conditions.
Fig. 2 shows example data for a 70/30 emulsion under three different
processing conditions.
It can be seen that the untreated emulsion takes much longer to
separate than those subject to microwave heating, with the interface
taking approximately 1 h to reach its maximum height. The
microwave heated emulsions can be separated in a much shorter
time, with the maximum interface height reached in less than
one-third of the time. Also of note in Fig. 2 is that the initial rate
of separation is much faster in the microwave heated emulsions
than the untreated. The raw data shown in Fig. 2 is used to calculate
the time taken from the beginning of treatment to the time the
interface reaches its maximum height. This separation time is used
to compare the effect of water content and salt content. Fig. 3
shows the separation time plotted against the heating time taken
from the raw data as demonstrated in Fig. 2.