ABSTRACT

FAJAR BAGAS SAPUTRA. Formulation of Demulsifier from Palm Oil Based Surfactant for
Crude Oil Emulsion Breaking from Production Wells of X Field. Supervised by : ERLIZA
HAMBALI & FUJITA HARUHIRO

The presence of emulsion in the petroleum production is in the centre of several problems,
including: expenses for pumping or transporting water via pipeline or tankers, the corrosion of
pipe work, pumps, production equipment and downstream overhead distillation columns, and the
poisoning of downstream refinery catalysts. Palm oil-based surfactant as an demulsifiers needs to
be developped due to the availability of raw materials in Indonesia, and also it can be used as an
alternative to petroleum-based surfactant. The objectives of this research were to produce palm
oil-based demulsifier and to analyze the performance of demulsifier. Physics characterization
(Density, Spesific grafvity, API gravity, viscosity) showed which X Field crude oil is light crude
oil. Chemistry Characterization was getting 0,713 % (w/w) the asphaltene content and BS&W is
25,75%. Formulation of demulsifier was conducted in 3 stages by selection of surfactant between
anionic surfactan Sodium Methyl Ester Sulfonat (SMES) and nonionic surfactant Diethanolamide
(DEA), Synergy test by mixing those surfactants, and selection of solvent. Anionic surfactant was
better to breaking the emulsion. Best mixture for two surfactant occurred in 10% DEA addition.
Best solvent for demulsifier formulation was toluene:xylene (1:1). Best demulsifier formulation
could decrease BS&W x field crude oil from 25,75% to 9,85% and separate water 50% from crude
oil emulsion in 50oC.

Keyword : Crude Oil, Demulsifiers, Emulsion, Palm Oil, Surfactant.