Resumen

PINA, Nolberto et al. Thermal-chemical method assisted by microwave radiation for the dehydration of a heavy crude oil. Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia [online]. 2007, vol.30, n.Especial, pp.401-409. ISSN 0254-0770.

The heavy crude oil presents problems in the dehydration due to the presence stable emulsions, with water content more than to 1.0%. In this work is proposed the application of microwaves heating (MWH) to favor the separation of emulsioned water in this crude oil, as alternative method to the standard conventional heating (SCH). The obtained results showed that both methods are effective for the crude oil dehydration since the content of water was smaller than 1.0%, nevertheless, the applied methodology in the thermal chemical methods using MWH required lower analysis time compared with the SCH, important advantage for the decrease of production costs and in the field analyses in the oil industry.

Palabras clave : Crude oil; dehydration; microwave heating.