Calcium phosphates synthesized from coralline materials (Porites) and their application as a demulsifier for water–oil separation

ABSTRACT Crude oil extraction is a hot topic concerning industrial applications. The extracted oil emulsions treatment with demulsifier is demanded for markets. Herein, we prepared a naturally based demulsifier comprising calcium phosphates from coralline materials. The XRD verifies successful formation of the intended calcium phosphate with characteristic peaks where the most intense peak at 30º for (211) plane matched well with card and former research. The SEM reveals the formation of the spherical, flowery shape. Zeta potential reaches −10 mV indicating reasonable stability of the demulsifier. For examining the separation efficiency using the bottle test, few drops of the demulsifer (~100 ppm) are enough for the separation at 55°C for 40 min in the water bath. Inherently, the separation initiates within few seconds. The extended results for the demulsifier are applied onto the ASH field (Borg Alarab, Egypt) and compared to other companies reports. The optimum separation efficiency for salt and water contents from crude oil reaches 9 PTB and 0.1%vol, respectively, after treatment by heating unit (Sigma package). The recommended values for these factors are 30 PTB and 2%vol. The efficiency of separation exceeds 99% for water and salt. This direction is significantly important for oil production and industry.