Testing of microbial demulsifiers with heavy crude emulsions

Summary It has already been demonstrated that model water-in-kerosene systems and toluene diluted heavy crude oil emulsions can be broken by microbial agents. In this studyN. amarae andR. rhodochrous are used on undiluted, water-in-heavy crude oil emulsions. The high viscosity of the undiluted emulsions severely limits the demulsifying ability of the bacteria towards these field emulsions.