Demulsification of Emulsion under High Voltage Pulsed Electric Fields

The electrical demulsification of emulsion in high voltage pulsed electric fields was studied under various conditions. The emulsion was a mixture of kerosene and water (1:1 by volume) with Span80 as emulsifier. As voltage applied ranges from 8 kV to 22 kV, the demulsification efficiency increased from 58.97% to 79.01%. In this experiment, the optimum voltage was 22 kV. Value of demulsification efficiency increased with operating time; while its increasing tendency slowed down dramatically after first 3 minutes. The increase of temperature resulted in decrease in the stability of the emulsion, and the electrical demulsification efficiency at 20degC was approximately 10% higher than that at 10degC under the conditions that other experimental factors remained unchanged. And it was observed that the demulsification efficiency was increasing along with the relative dielectric constant of the coating material for the metallic electrode.