Effect of Surfactant Concentration in the Emulsions on the Process of Oleophilic Porous Structures Imbibition

Lodz University of Technology, Poland

^a Corresponding author: olga.shtyka@edu.p.lodz.pl

Abstract

The spontaneous imbibition has been a subject of the scientific interest being a background process for numerous industrial technologies and occurring in the natural environment. In literature the experimental and theoretical results regarding this phenomenon describe a media imbibition with single-phase liquids and the relation between the process rate and media characteristics. The imbibition of oleophilic porous structures with two-phase liquids, only one phase of which was wetting, is an objective of the current publication. The main purpose is to estimate the influence of both surfactant fraction and the dispersed phase concentration on the mentioned process. The imbibition rate was investigated during model experiments with stabilized oil-in-water emulsions having the dispersed phase concentrations of 10 vol%, 30 vol% and 50 vol%. The prepared emulsions differed with fraction of the added surfactant, i.e. 1 vol%, 2 vol% and 5 vol%. The obtained results allowed to conclude that at the h_im≥0.02 m, the dispersed phase concentration and viscosity decreased versus height. However, the raise of the surfactant fraction caused the increase of mass and height of the imbibed emulsions in porous medium. Moreover, this provided increasing of viscosity and a change of emulsions behaviour as a liquid.