Crude oil demulsifier compositions and uses thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12435280-B2
Application number	US-202217722951-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2022
Priority date	Apr 21, 2021
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to demulsifier compositions and methods of resolving emulsions using the compositions. The demulsifiers include modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymers. For example, the demulsifiers may include ethoxylated or propoxylated hydroxy-succinimide copolymers. The demulsifier compositions are useful for resolving oil-in-water, water-in-oil, and complex emulsions of water and oil.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An emulsion, comprising water, an oil, and a composition, wherein the composition comprises an effective amount of a demulsifier, the demulsifier comprising a modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer, wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer comprises a structure selected from formula 1 or formula 2:

wherein R is a C 8 to C 36 alkyl group, X is linking group, each m is independently selected from 1 to 50, and n is selected from 5 to 200.

2. The emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer is an ethoxylated α-olefin hydroxy-succinimide copolymer.

3. The emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the emulsion excludes an alkylphenol compound.

4. A method of resolving an emulsion, comprising:
providing an emulsion including water and an oil,
adding a composition to the water, the oil, and/or the emulsion,
wherein the composition comprises an effective amount of a demulsifier, the demulsifier comprising a modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer, and
separating the water from the oil,
wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer comprises a structure selected from formula 1 or formula 2:

wherein R is a C 8 to C 36 alkyl group, X is linking group, each m is independently selected from 1 to 50, and n is selected from 5 to 200.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising mixing the oil with the water to obtain the emulsion.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising injecting the composition into a process stream comprising the oil, the water, and/or the emulsion.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising allowing the emulsion to stand in a quiescent state for a period of time sufficient to obtain separation into separate layers of water and oil prior to the separating.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the effective amount of the demulsifier is about 1 ppm to about 5,000 ppm, based on volume of the oil.

9. The method of claim 4 , wherein the oil comprises crude oil.

10. The method of claim 4 , wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer comprises a weight average molecular weight from about 5,000 Da to about 300,000 Da.

11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer is an ethoxylated α-olefin hydroxy-succinimide copolymer.

12. The method of claim 4 , wherein the modified hydroxy-succinimide copolymer is an ethoxylated α-olefin maleic anhydride copolymer functionalized with an amino-hydroxy compound.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the amino-hydroxy compound is

selected from the group consisting of 2-aminoethan-1-ol,

3-aminopropan-1-ol, 4-aminobutan-1-ol,

2-aminobutan-1-ol, 1-(aminomethyl)cyclopentan-1-ol,

5-aminopentan-1-ol, 1-aminopropan-2-ol,

4-aminocyclohexan-1-ol, 2-aminopropane-1,3-diol,

2-aminocyclohexan-1-ol,

2-((2-aminoethyl)amino)ethan-1-ol,

2-(2-aminoethoxy)ethan-1-ol,

2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol,

2-((3-aminopropyl)amino)ethan-1-ol,

4-aminophenol, 3-aminophenol, 2-aminophenol,

4-(2-aminoethyl)benzene-1,2-diol, 5-(2-aminoethyl)benzene-1,2,3-triol,

4-(aminomethyl phenol, 4-(2-aminoethyl)phenol,

2-amino-1-phenylethan-1-ol, 4-(2-amino-1-hydroxyethyl)benzene-1,2-diol,

(4-aminophenyl)methanol, 3-(2-amino-1-hydroxyethyl)phenol,

2-(4-aminophenyl)ethan-1-ol, (2-amino-3-methylphenyl)methanol,

(3-aminophenyl)methanol, 2-(3-aminophenyl)ethan-1-ol,

4-(aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol, 2-(2-aminophenyl)ethan-1-ol,

(2-aminophenyl)methanol, 4-aminobenzene-1,2-diol, and any combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 4 , wherein R is a C 16 to C 36 alkyl group.

15. The method of claim 4 , wherein X is an arylene group, an alkylene group, a —CH 2 CH 2 NHCH 2 CH 2 —group or a —CH 2 CH 2 OCH 2 CH 2 —group.

16. The method of claim 4 , wherein the composition is added to the water, the oil, and/or the emulsion during a refinery desalting operation.

17. The method of claim 4 , wherein the composition excludes an alkylphenol compound or wherein an alkylphenol compound is not added to the oil, the wash water, or the emulsion.

18. The method claim 4 , wherein the emulsion is a water-in-oil emulsion.

Assignees

• Ecolab Usa Inc

Inventors

• Dhawan Ashish
• Jones Regan Andrew

Classifications

• C08F222/06

  Maleic anhydride · CPC title

• C02F2103/365

  from petrochemical industry (e.g. refineries) · CPC title

• C02F2101/32

  Hydrocarbons, e.g. oil · CPC title

• C02F1/682

  by addition of chemical compounds for dispersing an oily layer on water · CPC title

• B01D17/047

  with separation aids · CPC title