Radio frequency microwave energy method to break oil and water emulsions

摘要

A method to effectively break hydrocarbon and water emulsions with radio frequency energy. A stream of hydrocarbon and water emulsion is pumped into a multimode resonant reentrant microwave cavity. Dual opposing emulsion flow chambers with a centrally supplied microwave waveguide form a double ended resonant chamber with multiple RF energy reflections to effectively treat the flowing emulsion. The emulsified feedstock enters into the bottoms of both flow chambers and exits to a centrifuge or storage for separation.