Influence of Salinity, Surfactants and Power of Ultrasonic Homogenizer on Droplet Size Distribution of Crude Oil/Water Emulsions

In this paper, the droplet size distribution of the Tehran refinery crude oil/water emulsions is determined by analyzing the photomicrographs of model emulsions which were taken by microscope. The normal distribution function is fitted to the experimental data in order to reproduce the droplet size distribution (DSD) of the emulsions by using mean diameter and standard deviation. The effect of different parameters such as surfactant concentration, salinity, and the power of homogenizer on the droplet size distribution and mean droplet diameter of the emulsions are determined. The smaller droplet size was observed in high concentrations of surfactant and in the absence of salt, and also in emulsions which were prepared with lower power of homogenizer.