The company will investigate the use of magnetic fields to separate water and oil from emulsions of these materials. The method calls for the use of very small amounts of either water-soluble or oil-soluble magnetic additives to impart magnetic properties to the liquid occupying the smaller volume of the mixture. Magnetic fields are employed to cause the droplets which make up the inner phase of the emulsion to coalesce in a manner analogous to electrostatic coalescence, which is currently used in desalting and dewatering of crude oil. It is estimated that with use of very small amounts of magnetic chemicals which are designed to concentrate at the boundary between the liquid making up the droplets and the liquid the droplets are dispersed in, that magnetic fields on the order of two Tesla or less can create coalescence forces of the same order of magnitude as a large electrical field. Magnetic fields of two Tesla are commercially available and are widely used in many practical applications. The magnetostatic method is applicable to oil/water separations where there is high electrical conductivity in either the oil or water; this type of system cannot be treated by the conventional electrical method. The new method is safer to use in petroleum refining applications than is the electrostatic method because high voltage electric fields are not employed. Potential commercial applications of the research are in desalting and dehydration of crude oil, enhanced oil recovery, preparation of injection water in secondary oil recovery, waste treatment, oil spill cleanup, and demulsification in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
