In oil fields, demulsifying chemicals are continuously injected into pipeline segments located between the manifolds and separation tanks to partially separate oil from water. Cascade of few downstream storage tanks are then used to perform further separation by gravity. This process is costly, not environmental friendly, and requires a long settling time in the storage tanks that causes a substantial decrease of oil production throughput. This remains a critical challenge for most oil producing companies, including ADNOC, where a production increase from 3 to 5 million barrels/day is sought within the next few years. This research challenge corresponds to one of the R&D challenges faced by ADNOC, as highlighted in the latest RDPETRO conference. Substituting the existing chemical injection-based process with a cheaper and more sustainable solution is one of the main goals of this research project. Many studies have demonstrated the ability of ultrasound to separate oil from water but none of them tackled large scale requirements of oil gas fields. This may be attributed to the fact that the multiphase flow carried in the pipeline is usually composed of liquid and gas phases, causing a quasi-attenuation of acoustic waves when they hit the gas phase. Deploying this technology inside vessels would require an excessive amount of energy as well as high capex and running costs.
