Paper: Automation and Treating of Oil Field Emulsions

Emulsions (oil/water mixtures) have been known to exist since oil was first produced. The first early methods for dealing with this problem were to skim the oil from the top of a storage vessel and get rid of the rest by flowing it into streams or storage pits. The early refiners had their problems with handling crude oil containing water, because the expansion of a typical crude oil when heated to 700 degrees Fahrenheit is 60%, while water expands more than 1600 times (160,000%) as steam. Because of this problem, purchasers of crude oil limited the water content of their purchases and developed elaborate systems for dehydrating to be used for charge stock.