Desalination and Dehydration of Oil




THE DESALINATION AND DEHYDRATION OF HYDROCARBON, PERFORMED UNDER DIFFERENT PROCESSES, ALLOWS THE EXTRACTION OF SALTS, WASTE AND WATERPROOF CONTENTS.

When the oil is extracted from its depths, it usually goes through processes that make it suitable for its subsequent use. It often contains gases, unwanted contaminants, soluble solid particles such as sand and salts dissolved in water called brines.

This salt leads to certain problems such as corrosion and tartar so it must be extracted from the crude. As the salt is diluted in water, desalination removes not only salt but also residual free water.
To remove the salt from the oil, you can remove the water it contains, or dilute it. Desalters are used for this purpose that can perform both tasks and using electrostatic charge remove most of the water or inject clean water to dilute the salt concentration.

 
Oil goes through several processes for desalination and dehydration.

The measurements of the type and level of pollutants that the crude oil contains is called “Basic Sediment and Water”, or by its acronym BS&W, a process that has to be carried out before the refining plants start to process the crude, therefore, it is the first unit in virtually all refineries.

The distillation units of crude oil process the oil in various fractions at different degrees of boiling, whose optimum temperature depends on the source of the hydrocarbon and varies between 100 to 150 degrees Celsius.

 
Picture from slb.com

Such a process results in current wastewater called acidic waters, which contain ammonia and dissolved hydrogen sulfide, and when they are combined, produce ammonium hydrosulfide in ionic form. Subsequently, these waters are processed in sour water stripper in distillation towers and are recycled for desalination washing.

Several teams intervene consecutively for the desalination and dehydration of the hydrocarbon. In the first place, the gas-liquid separators intervene in the first instance, and then pass to the gravitational separators and finally to the heaters. The last desalination step is performed in electrostatic coalescers, where the oil is subjected to an intense electric field, generated by high voltage between two electrodes.

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