Patent ID: 7442311

Claim:
A method of treating and breaking down tight emulsions including oil molecules, comprising: injecting the emulsion with an oxidizing or reducing agent; changing the temperature of the emulsion; maintaining the changed temperature for a predetermined period of time, wherein said maintained temperature change, in combination with said injected agent, causes reduced interfacial tension and chained scission of the oil molecules, said chained scission causing the molecular weight of the oil molecules to change and enchancing the final viscosity of a saleable product; allowing interfacial separation of the emulsion; and outputting a saleable product phase, a solid phase and an aqueous phase, wherein the aqueous phase has a reduction in biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand levels compared to the emulsion, wherein the saleable product phase is one hundred percent of the oil molecules, and wherein the solid phase is free of one hundred percent of the oil molecules and includes environmently friendly recyclable solids.