The relevance of “HLB” to de‐emulsification of a mixture of heavy oil, water and clay

Series of synthetic neutral surfactants have been used to break emulsions of heavy oil, water and clay. The degree of de‐emulsification was found to correlate with the hydrophilic‐lipophilic balance (HLB) of the surfactant. The most effective agents for de‐watering had HLB values between either 4 and 6 or 13 and 15. For clay removal, the most useful surfactants had HLB values above 20. Surfactants between 5 and 8 were also effective for removing clay, but the material released had appreciably more oil adhering than that removed by the higher HLB compounds. Other surfactant parameters such as surface tension, interfacial tension against hexadecane and spreading tension were unrelated to de‐emulsifying ability.