Abstract
This work aims at synthesizing two new ionic liquids (ILs) based on the reaction of dodecylamine (DA) with epichlorohydrin (EH), followed by the reaction with either diethylenetriamine (DT) or tetraethylenepentamine (TP) to form the corresponding oligoamines, DADT and DATP, respectively. DADT and DATP were quaternized using acetic acid, producing ILs, DADT-IL, and DATP-IL, respectively. The chemical structures, thermal stability, surface, and interfacial tensions, and relative solubility number (RSN) were evaluated. The efficiency of the as-synthesized ILs for dehydration of water-in-heavy crude oil (W/O) emulsions was also evaluated. Furthermore, the effect of the as-synthesized ILs concentration and the ratio of crude oil to brine on dehydration efficiency was also evaluated. DADT-IL and DATP-IL exhibited promising results for dehydration of W/O emulsions even at low concentrations. The results also indicate that DATP-IL has higher dehydration efficiency, which may be reflected in its higher ability to reduce interfacial tension compared to DADT-IL. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.