Water content monitoring in water-in-crude-oil emulsions using an ultrasonic multiple-backscattering sensor

This work shows the application of an ultrasonic multiple-scattering sensor for monitoring water-in-petroleum emulsions. The sensor consists of a commercial ultrasonic transducer with an array of cylindrical scatterers placed in the near field. The scatterers are thin metal bars arranged in rows in front of the transducer. The backscattering signals were analyzed by calculating the wave energy and by a cross-correlation between signal segments; they were also used to determine the propagation velocity in the emulsions. The tests performed used emulsions with water volume concentrations from 0% to 50%. The results showed that both the signal energy and propagation velocity strongly depended on the concentration of water in the emulsion. Therefore, the ultrasonic multiple-scattering sensor can be used for on-line and real-time monitoring of the water content in water-in-crude-oil emulsions

• Autores: Durán, Alberto L.; Franco Guzmán, Ediguer Enrique; Reyna, Carlos A. B.; Pérez, Nicolás; Tsuzuki, Marcos S. G.; Buiochi, Flávio
• Tipo de recurso: Article of journal
• Fecha de publicación: 2021
• Institución: Universidad Autónoma de Occidente
• Repositorio: RED: Repositorio Educativo Digital UAO
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:red.uao.edu.co:10614/13873
• Acceso en línea: https://hdl.handle.net/10614/13873; https://red.uao.edu.co/
• Palabra clave: Detectores químicos; Sensores electroquímicos; Chemical detectors; Electrochemical sensors; Water in crude oil emulsion; Water content; Ultrasound; Propagation speed
• Rights: openAccess
• License: Derechos reservados - MDPI, 2021