Application of Electric Mixing Method to Improve the Dehydration Efficiency of Industrial Crude Oil Desalting Unit

Abstract

The salts are often present in crude oil are calcium, sodium and magnesium chlorides. Salt can cause severe problems such as corrosion in equipment, fouling by salt deposition, and poisoning of catalysts in downstream units. The current research presents a process modification for improving the dehydration efficiency in a crude oil desalting unit. The main purpose of the current investigation is to substitute the mixing valve by an electrical mixing system. The process configuration was modeled in addition to the electrostatic desulting drum. Based on this model, it is affirmed that the modification is capable to improve the dehydration efficiency. The models are designed according to the population balance method to predict the water cut in the treated crude oil at steady state condition. In order to improve the considered model accuracy, the results are compared with plant data for the existing configuration by the mixing valve. The comparison between the results gained by the mixing valve and the electric mixing system proves the superiority of the proposed technology. Furthermore, the results indicate the optimum value of the electric field strength in the mixing stage to achieve minimum water cut in the treated crude oil.