DEVELOPMENT OF A CONTINUOUS ELECTRIC COALESCER OF W/O EMULSIONS IN LIQUID SURFACTANT MEMBRANE PROCESS

The development of an efficient, continuous demulsification apparatus is needed in the industrial separation process utilizing the liquid surfactant membrane technique. A test apparatus for continuous demulsification was constructed in which a pulsed dc high potential is applied to W/O emulsions flowing between parallel copper electrodes of a perforated plate. Efficient demulsification was achieved by an operation in which the demulsified oil phase was absent between the emulsion and the upper electrode. When the feed rate of emulsion was adjusted to be equal to the demulsification rate, the latter value was proportional to the square root of the applied potential and independent of the distance between the electrodes. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.