f-Theory VISCOSITY MODELING OF OIL IN WATER EMULSIONS 

J.L. Mendoza de la Cruz¹, S. E. Quiñones-Cisneros² , U.K. Deiters2 and C. Lira Galeana¹

¹Mexican Inst. of Petroleum, Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas 152, Mexico City 07730, MEXICO

²Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Cologne, Luxemburger Str. 116, D-50939 Koeln, GERMANY

The viscosity of reservoir fluids is a property of unquestionable importance in the petroleum industry.  While taking advantage of the widely used and well-understood cubic equations of state, the recently developed friction theory (f-theory) for viscosity modelling approach has been shown capable of extending the capability of these models to the accurate description of viscosity for a wide range of reservoir fluids, ranging from natural gases to heavy crude oils, as well as ample ranges of pressure and temperature conditions. However, a problem of increased complexity is the viscosity description of oil in water emulsions, in particular in the case of heavy oils.

In this presentation, oil in water emulsion measurements at wide conditions of water concentration, pressure and temperature are presented.  The emulsions have been mechanically stabilized using a BEC-type pump at 3200 and 3500 RPM.  Subsequently, the f-theory is applied for the modelling of the viscosity emulsion measurements and the results will be discussed. Combined with previous petroleum fluid modelling investigations, this presentation encompasses an initial exploratory work regarding the potential extension of the f-theory to more challenging and complex systems of relevance to the petroleum industry, such as the viscosity modelling of oil in water emulsions.