Refractometric and conductivity based water cut measurement techniques for stable emulsions

Area of Science:

• Petroleum Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• Thermal recovery processes like steam-assisted gravity drainage produce stable heavy oil and bitumen emulsions.
• Accurate water cut measurement is vital for economic and operational decisions but challenging for stable emulsions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate novel techniques for precise water cut measurement in stable emulsions.
• To apply Boyle's law combined with refractive index (RI) or electrical conductivity (EC) for water cut determination.

Main Methods:

• Addition of a known amount of salt (e.g., NaCl) to the emulsion.
• Measurement of brine salinity using RI or EC after salt addition.
• Correlation of added salt mass with measured salinity to determine aqueous phase volume and water cut.

Main Results:

• The novel techniques precisely determined water cut without phase separation.
• Validation with known emulsion samples showed high accuracy.
• Application to an ES-SAGD experiment yielded results comparable to the centrifuge method.

Conclusions:

• The developed methods offer a reliable and accurate approach for measuring water cut in stable heavy oil emulsions.
• These techniques can improve decision-making in thermal oil recovery operations.
• The combination of Boyle's law with RI/EC provides a valuable tool for emulsion analysis.