Enhanced characterization of oilfield emulsions via NMR diffusion and transverse relaxation experiments

The procedure proposed by Packer and Rees (J. Colloid Interface Sci. 40 (1972) 206) to interpret pulsed field gradient spin-echo (PGSE) experiments on emulsions is commonly used to resolve for the distribution of droplet sizes via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Nevertheless, such procedure is based on several assumptions that may restrict its applicability in many practical cases. Among such constrains, (a) the amplitude of the spin-echo (signal) must be influenced solely by the drop phase, and not by the continuous phase; and (b) the shape of the drop size distribution must be assumed a priori. This article discusses new theory to interpret results from PGSE experiments and a novel procedure that couples diffusion measurements (PGSE) with transverse relaxation rate experiments (the so-called CPMG sequence) to overcome the above limitations. Results from experiments on emulsions of water dispersed in several crude oils are reported to demonstrate that the combined CPMG–PGSE method renders drop size distributions with arbitrary shape, the water/oil ratio of the emulsion and the rate of decay of magnetization at the interfaces, i.e. the surface relaxivity. It is also shown that the procedure allows screening if the dispersion is oil-in-water (o/w) or water-in-oil (w/o) in a straightforward manner and that it is suitable to evaluate stability of emulsions.