Application of the response surface methodology for modeling demulsification of crude oil emulsion using a demulsifier

The main objective of this research is to determine the capability of four surface-active compounds namely poly(ethylene glycol) distearate, N,N-dimethyldodecylamine N–oxide solution, polyoxyethylene (10) tridecyl ether, and polyethylene glycol sorbitan monooleate as demulsifier agents in breaking water-in-crude oil emulsion through the bottle test method. The influence of temperature, concentration, water content, and pH on demulsification efficiency of the studied demulsifiers was investigated via the response surface methodology (RSM) and the central composite design method (CCD) was applied to design the experiments. The optimum values of input variables to obtain the maximum water separation efficiency were determined based on the developed model by analyze of variance (ANOVA). The R-squared values demonstrate that the developed models could appropriately predict the experimental results of all demulsifier agents.     

Phase control of group-velocity-based biexciton coherence in a multiple quantum well nanostructure

A double cascade-type four-level multiple-quantum-well-based exciton-biexciton transitions are proposed. The study is carried out on a 4.8-rim ZnSe single-quantum well which is embedded into ZnMgSSe cladding layers and pseudomor- phically grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a （0 0 1） GaAs substrate. It is displayed that the exciton spin relaxation and relative phases between applied fields can influence the transient and steady-state behaviors of absorption, dispersion, and group velocity of two weak probe and signal fields. Also, transient behaviors of electron population of different levels are discussed. It is found that the probe or signal amplification occurs in the absence of population inversion.     

Interactive optimization of biosurfactant production by Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 isolated from an Iranian oil well

The potential of an indigenous bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant was investigated in this study. After isolation, the bacterium was characterized to be Paenibacillus alvei by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to lower the surface tension of media to 35 mN/m. Accordingly, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and FT-IR has been carried out to determine compositional analysis of the produced biosurfactant. After all the tests related to characterization of the biosurfactant produced by the isolated bacterium, it was characterized as lipopeptide derivative. The combination of central composite rotatable design (CCRD) and response surface methodology (RSM) was exploited to optimize biosurfactant production. Therefore, variations of four impressive parameters, pH, temperature, glucose and salinity concentrations were selected for optimization of growth conditions. The empirical model developed through RSM in terms of effective operational factors mentioned above was found to be adequate to describe the biosurfactant production. A maximum reduction in surface tension was obtained under the optimal conditions of 13.03 g/l glucose concentration, 34.76 °C, 51.39 g/l total salt concentration and medium pH 6.89.