Biswal, Sibani Lisa2019-05-172019-05-172018-052018-04-20May 2018Zhang, Zhuqing. "Coalescence of Model Asphaltene-Stabilized Water-in-Oil Emulsions in Microfluidic Devices." (2018) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105671">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105671</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105671Asphaltene related problems have aroused more and more attention in flow assurance and proved to be fatal with practical examples in both oil production and transportation. Asphaltene-stabilized emulsions generated in the oil recovery would significant increase oil viscosity which leads to a giant energy loss during the transport process. Meanwhile, oil sources containing emulsions need extra treatments to separate residual water before being converted to petrochemical products. In order to find better solutions to breaking those unexpected emulsions sufficiently, detailed information about asphaltene-stabilized emulsions was needed. Since the chemical structure of asphaltene was still buried in mystery, we decided to utilize model molecules to mimic the field asphaltene molecules at oil-water interface, and try to investigate the mechanism of how asphatlenes stabilize emulsions. In this work, model molecules, coronene and VO-79, were used as references, and emulsion stability was characterized using microfluidic method. Interfacial properties of model asphaltene molecules were also studied with interfacial tension (IFT) measurement and surface potential measurement.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.AsphalteneMicrofluidicsThesis2019-05-17