3 Crude Oil Desalting Methods And Benefits Of Using Desalters Over The Other Two

Refineries are a complex set of operating units specifically designed to process crude oil into refined products like jet fuels, gasoline, diesel, and hundreds of other products that people use every day.

The refinery process constitutes desalting as the first step of the overall process. The desalter bought from recognized desalter unit suppliers can efficiently remove most of the impurities from the raw oil.

As a result, almost all refineries now use electrostatic desalters because removal of salts, water, and sediment is considered necessary to avoid excessive fouling of equipment and corrosion from generated HCl due to the presence of chloride salts.

However, note that though desalting using desalters is the most efficient method of removing impurities, it isn’t the only one.

3 Potential Methods Of Desalting Of Crude Oil

- Mechanical

In the case of the mechanical method, heated crude is mixed with wash water left in a large vessel for settling down water drops because of gravity. This method is not very effective and takes a lot of time.

- Chemical

The chemical method includes the process of emulsion breakers mixing up wash water to expedite the process of settling water. This method is also known to work based on the gravity settling technique. Though this process is quicker than the mechanical method, it isn’t effective.

- Electrical Desalting

This method is based on an electric field where high voltage applications generate a force. An attractive force is developed, which attracts all water molecules to get collected and converted into more significant water drops, further getting drained out.

Utilization Of Desalters In Refineries: The Advantages

The benefits that follow by using desalter in oil refineries for crude oil are:

* Less plugging and choking of equipment and piping system

* Zero formation of scale in a heat exchanger and heating unit

* Saving of oil from waste crude

* Reduced maintenance for pumps because of mud, sand, and other impurities removal

* Increased flow in pipes, pumps, heat exchangers, etc.

Conclusion

Crude oil, once left unprocessed, can cause many types of operational failure and maintenance problems. Therefore, the utilization of desalters as the best method of desalting is necessary to help clean crude oil in its initial processing stage.