ALOM INHIB 130
result in high ash contents and degrade the product. Salt when steam hydrolyzed produce the halogen acids. These, if untreated, can negatively affect most dry steam, and wet steam and product condensates areas in the overheads. Inhib 130 is a scientifically designed desalting additive package that is novel in its desalting mechanism. It can be used in formulations for all types of crudes and blend slates of crude oils with smaller percentages of the off specifications product streams, slops re-run, bottom fractions, tank bottoms and waste lube oils.
ALOM INHIB 130 The purpose of desalting is to remove salts and other mobile, or water soluble or oil insoluble impurities from crude oils in upstream processes and crude oil slates in refineries, prior to being charged to the crude distillation units. These salts, mainly chlorides, but may include sulphates, carbonates, bicarbonates etc, of the alkali and alkaline earth metals are normally dissolved in the water held in the crude oils, across separators and desalting vessels as mentioned above. Crude oil in storage, export crude oil and crude oil reception tanks in refineries may contain smaller amounts of water that hold up tenacious salt. Water is carried over in crude oil production processes as emulsions, holding salt. Upstream, demulsifiers, high heat and electric currents are used to first coalesce water in heater treaters, desalters and chemelectrics, then to settle water to the interface and hence remove soluble salts. These demulsifier may contain desalting additives to assist desalting in process or storage tanks. Oil field specifications for ppm salt are variable depending on the sales API and sulphur content, but ~30 –100+ ppm salt are common.
In refineries a crude oil tank can be treated, if the salt and/or water are high, on offloading, with a desalting chemical to help coalesce water thereby removing salt. Some crudes contain suspensions and compounds of sand, silt, clay, agglomerated asphaltenes, iron compounds, carbon and sulphur. A good desalting chemical can water wet these to the interface dropout zone or else these can foul heat exchangers, furnace tubes and transfer lines causing plugging, hot spots and inefficient heat exchanger performance. Salt can act as catalyst for coke formation in furnace tubes, lines and heat exchangers. From the crude oil tank farm, crude with maybe, up to 150-ppm salt, is sent to pre heat exchangers then heaters and to desalters. Upstream the desalters, a lower salted water is added, maybe up to 10% maximum and passed through a mix valve to create a shearing of oil and water to facilitate the intimate contact of water with salt. A small amount of a desalting chemical is added at the water addition point preferably into the crude oil. The crude-water mixture enters the desalter vessel and high voltage electrical field is applied to coalesce water droplets, and breaking tight emulsions to form water, which removes salt under high
temperatures near 85-100 deg C.
Dry, clean oil (now with about 5 ppm salt) is pumped via interlink with the crude bottoms heat exchangers, to the distillation unit. Salty water, preferably with the least oil in water concentration, is drained to the wastewater treatment plants. An added character to crude oils being observed over the last 7 years is the presence of naphthenic acids causing severe desalter emulsions. The easy crudes have been found in the world, now the young crudes are predominating in the discoveries, with increasing TAN values and more problematical naphthenic acid contents. Thus the desalting chemicals have to be of higher technology to combat these emulsions. Inhib 130 is a desalting additive designed to meet a clever desalting programme with a modern approach.
INHIB 130 can be applied directly into the crude oil at the wash water points upstream the desalters or in oilfield processes alongside the demulsifiers at the desalters and chemelectrics or to crude oil to storage tanks or refinery crude oil reception tanks. It can also be applied to product streams requiring static dehazing-desalting. Treatment rate will depend on the contact time, temperature and process conditions, but generally it is expected that 15 –30 ppm should be tried.
As an additive for formulation, this will depend on the severity of the salt problem. If it’s a salt problem rather than an emulsion then a higher % INHIB 130 is envisaged in the formulation, maybe up to 25% of the total blend. If it’s a tight emulsion problem, which is holding the salt back, then the other demulsifier-desalting alkoxylated products will need to take preference and Inhib 130 can be used maybe at 10% concentration. This actual ratio will be determined under plant trial conditions.
SPECIFICATIONS REQUIRED:
The normal limits needed for treated crude oil are: less than 5 ppm salt for refineries and <15 ppm oil in water from wastewater discharge and disposal.
FEATURES and BENEFITS:
- best in class desalting additive
- friendly to handle formulation
- non smelly, non corrosive at dosages envisaged
- cost-effective solution
- a winterized version can be packaged
- V 180 Liters Plastic Drums
- v 1000 Liters IBC Tanks
- v 20000 Liters ISO Tankers