Types of Demulsifier, Oil Soluble Demulsifier, Water Soluble Demulsifier

Demulsifier is one of the important oilfield chemicals widely used in petroleum industries to act as an emulsion breaker to separate out oil in water or water in oil. The formulation of demulsifier depends on the properties of crude oil like asphalt, paraffin etc. The petroleum demulsifier breaks oil and water, extracting the solid out of liquid to generate high quality crude oil. The demulsifier works on the principal of attracting the droplet interface creates drop dispersion or deposition to create a big droplet. Change in density of molecules separate out solid from water. Thus the demulsifier is also known as emulsion breaker. Demulsifier is used in various industries where oil and water are used. The major usage of demulsifier is in the petroleum industries to purify the crude oil. Along with petroleum, demulsifier is used in steel industries, aluminum industries, chemical processing and fuel washing.

Types of Demulsifier

There are two different types of demulsifiers are available in the market. Oil soluble demulsifier for demulsification and water soluble demulsifier. Oil soluble demulsifier is organic formulation soluble in crude oil, xylene and toluene and creates the emulsion process for water in oil and oil in water at room temperature. It gives better performance if the temperature increases above certain degree.

Water soluble demulsifier is the organic surfactants solution with water and soluble in crude oil for Demulsification process of oil in water at room temperature. Water soluble emulsion breaker soluble in the mixture and start the emulsion process immediate.  These demulsifiers are non hazardous and non-toxic. In petroleum crude oil production industry the demulsifier must be biodegradable so that the water soluble demulsifier doesn’t contain any phenolic contain on removal.


Demulsifier is the organic compound and need to keep away from direct sunlight. Direct human contact of demulsifier should be avoided. To avoid hazardous effect of demulsifier, the goggles and gloves should wear for safe handling. The spillage can be handled with dry absorbent like sand, sawdust etc.  On ingestion / eye contact with the product, medical attention should be sought immediately. Chemicals for Drilling Fluids production include dispersants, emulsifiers, wetting agents, biocides, defoamers, corrosion inhibitor, and flocculants. For Cementing and Stimulation, polymers, surfactants, clay control additives, friction reducers, etc. are regularly used. For Oil Production, drag reduction agents, flow improvers, defoamers, sulfite scavengers, etc. are the key chemicals.