Towards a Greening of the Petroleum Industry: Minimizing Emulsion and Foam Formation

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Author: vjohn at nsf18 Date: 7/20/98 11:34 AM Priority: Normal TO: adthomas Subject: 9817127 Kilpatrick Award ------------------------------- Message Contents ------------------------------- Abstract Proposal No: 9817127 Proposal Type: EPA-NSF Joint Initiative, 1998 Principal Investigator: Peter K. Kilpatrick Affiliation: North Carolina State University This grant is awarded through the Separations and Purification Program sub-element of the Interfacial, Transport and Separations Program of the Chemical and Transport Systems Division. The principal investigator is Dr. Peter Kilpatrick at North Carolina State University. The research involves fundamental studies on the emulsion and foam formation characteristics of asphaltenes commonly found in the petroleum industry. Such asphaltene based emulsions are made up of viscoelastic films formed by crosslinking of primary aggregates. These crosslinked flocculates are environmentally deleterious as they may pose health hazards as endocrine disruptors. Additionally, they form waxy dispersions that tend to plug exploration and transmission pipelines. The objective of the work is to elucidate the mechanisms of formation, the stability aspects and rheological properties of these emulsions. Such fundamental studies will open the way to mitigate the formation of these emulsions.