Introduction To a Desalter Design Used In Oil Refinery Industry

Oil produced in most oil fields have significant amount of water in the form of an emulsion that needs thorough treatment. Additionally, this oil also contains dissolved salts, mainly chlorides of salt, calcium, and magnesium. By buying desalter material of construction of high-quality, this crude oil can be treated, which would prevent the salt present in a refinery from to cause certain operating and maintenance problems.

A robust crude unit desalter system design can help an engineer operate and maintain the system with the suitable water wash flow, injection water, and settling velocity. The design of a desalter maybe influenced by factors such as process requirements, economics, and safety.

General design consideration

The heavier crude oil has become a crucial option in terms of crude oil refining because of the fact that this raw material is available at a cheaper rate in most international market. When crude oil is produced, along with that a significant amount of water, formation solids, and corrosion products are also produced. The water produced here contains appreciable amounts of dissolved salts along with the chlorides, sulfates, and bicarbonates of alkali metals.

Separation processes are implemented at the production site to minimize unnecessary transportation costs, and to prevent corrosion in the transportation system. Salt occurs naturally in all crude, but it can vary greatly in terms of the concentration. The production practice facilitates the formation of salt. The bulk of the salt can be dissolved in coexisting water and can be removed with the help of a desalination plant.

A desalting process is implemented to remove contaminants from crude oil before it enters the processing units. By removing the contaminants at the onset, it becomes easier to minimize the impact of corrosion, as well as fouling in downstream units. Refiners usually desalt the entering crude to less than 1 PTB(pounds of salt per thousand barrels of crude oil) or the salt content on crude. Desalting in the fields can reduce corrosion while transporting the crude in pipelines or tankers. The desalted water can be re-injected back into the reservoir after suitable treatment is done. This can solve environment-related problems as well.

When a desalter being designed, its type and size play an important role. They are dependent on numerous operational factors such as required pressure, temperature, viscosity and flow rate. They are also dependent on user specification relating to a maximum salt amount (PTB) allowed in the product oil stream.

Electrostatic desalter

This desalting technique removes the already present water in crude oil and also any suspended solid. There is significant amount of reduction in pumping cost when this method is implemented. This desalting technique also removes left-over impurities, such as finely divided sand particles, clays, iron oxide, drilling mud, iron sulphide, arsene, etc.

If you are looking for desalter services or desalter material of construction, there are a number of top-quality service providers who can assist you with full dedication and experienced professionals.

Author: The author is a blogger and the article is about desalter material.

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desalters Joined: December 23rd, 2018