N-vinylpyrrolidone-based cationic copolymer for separating an oil-in-water emulsion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9758397-B2
Application number	US-201314414645-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 30, 2013
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a method of separating an oil-in-water emulsion formed during crude oil production into a water phase and an oil phase that includes adding 1 part-per-million (ppm) to 10000 ppm of an N-vinylpyrrolidone based cationic copolymer to the oil-in-water emulsion, based on the total volume of the oil-in-water emulsion, to form a water phase and an oil phase, and separating the water phase from the oil phase.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of separating an oil-in-water emulsion formed during crude oil production into a water phase and an oil phase, comprising:
adding 1 part-per-million (ppm) to 10,000 ppm of a cationic copolymer formed with monomers consisting of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and a quaternary ammonium salt of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate having an ester linkage and a methacrylate functionality to the oil-in-water emulsion, based on a total volume of the oil-in-water emulsion, to form the water phase and the oil phase; and
separating the water phase from the oil phase.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the quaternary ammonium salt of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate having an ester linkage and a methacrylate functionality is 2-ethyldimethylaminoethyl methacrylate ethyl sulfate.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the cationic copolymer is formed as a reaction product of about 67 weight percent (wt. %) of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and about 33 wt. % of a quaternized dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate.

4. The method of claim 3 , where the quaternary ammonium salt of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate having an ester linkage and a methacrylate functionality is 2-ethyldimethylaminoethyl methacrylate ethyl sulfate.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the cationic copolymer has a weight average molecular weight of about 1,000,000 g/mol.

Assignees

• Dow Global Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Yanjarappa M J
• Boyer Cecile
• Hoyles Stephen M
• Poindexter Michael K

Classifications

• E21B21/068

  using chemical treatment · CPC title

• C02F2101/32

  Hydrocarbons, e.g. oil · CPC title

• C09K8/588

  characterised by the use of specific polymers {(polymeric surfactants C09K8/584)} · CPC title

• C10G33/04

  with chemical means · CPC title

• E21B21/063

  by separating components · CPC title