Patent ID: 8747674

Claim:
A process for treating water/oil (“W/O”) emulsions, comprising: (a) adding, by stirring, a formula C + A − salt that is in a liquid state at a temperature of 150° C. or less, the formula C + A − salt being used as such or dissolved in water or in an organic solvent, to a W/O emulsion containing from 0.5% to 85% per volume of water as the dispersion phase in an oily phase, to obtain a mixture of the formula C + A − salt and W/O emulsion; (b) heating the mixture obtained in (a) by applying microwaves using a device containing a microwave emitter issuing radiation in the frequency between 1,000 MHz and 300,000 MHz for a period of from 5 seconds to 120 minutes at a temperature of from 25° C. to 270° C. under a pressure of from 0.5 bar to 200 bar to demulsify the mixture; and (c) separating the mixture heated in (b) using separator equipment in two distinct phases: a first phase containing water and a second phase containing oil, wherein in the formula C + A − salt, the A − is an anion and the C + is a cation, and the cation C + has a hydrophobic alkyl chain attached to a cationic group.