Measurement of crude oil emulsion instability using magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging

Emulsion stability is important in many environmental and industrial applications. Unstable emulsions tend to have a layered structure which will evolve in space and time. Magnetic Resonance (MR) is a nondestructive method that can be used to study emulsion instability based on relaxation times (T1, T2), and/or diffusion (D). The bulk transverse relaxation lifetime (T2) is the most useful parameter for analysis. Since breaking of emulsions creates different layers and phases, spatially resolved T2 data is more valuable than bulk whole sample data. Previous literature studies were principally based on bulk T1, T2 or self-diffusion measurements without spatial resolution. In this study, for the first time, spatially resolved T2 distributions were used to examine oil and water behavior during emulsion breaking.