Title : The novel process for separation of water and sediments from ETP slop oil
Abstract:
The objective of this innovative research work was to develop reliable slop oil treatment techniques to address desalting and distillation process related issues faced by petroleum refinery. A huge quantity of slop oil is being collected at effluent treatment plant from de-salter brine water and reprocessed at petroleum refinery. The slop oil is in a very tight emulsion form having 60 to 75 percent water, 0.5 to 1.0 percent sediments and high amount of water-soluble salts. The reprocessing of tight emulsion with crude oil is quite challenging and petroleum refiner facing many problems even reprocessing at lower rate viz a).
The huge quantity of slop oil is reducing refining capacity and increasing processing cost hence it has very big financial impact on GRM, it also consumes extra energy at different stages and require multiple storage, treatment & handling facilities (tanks, chemicals, mechanical and heating resources). It has adverse impact on environment as well as it increase hazardous risk, b).
The worst quality of slop oil (high level of water, sediment and water soluble salts in tight emulsion form) is destabilizing de-salter & CDU operation, generating more slop oil during de-salting process and creating vicious cycle of emulsion, c) Some time, slop oil generation is very high and it is difficult to manage inventory, hence it become compulsion to reprocess within time frame even at the cost of more CDU throughput loss, d) It increase fouling, corrosion and frequent breakdown of critical equipment, and e) It is also impacting on colour of ATF product.
Nayara R&D team has invented a simple and quick process to separate water and sediments from ETP slop oil. The process performance is verified at laboratory scale and 1000 MTPM capacity semi-commercial demo unit at Nayara refinery. The process is capable to separate water up to 99 percent hence it is reducing the quantity of slop oil and it also separates sediments & reduce water soluble salts hence it is improving the quality of slop oil. From the experimental output, it is concluded that the invented process will resolve above mentioned problems of petroleum refinery.
The process is under implementation stage at Nayara Refinery. The invented process is novel hence granted for Indian patent, PCT application published and EU patent under examination. Since the invented process is applicable to petroleum industries globally it is envisaged that invented process will be highly useful for petroleum fraternity.
Keywords: Crude Oil, Slop Oil, Oil-in-Water Emulsion
Audience Take Away Notes:
Slop oil generation from de-salter brine water and reprocessing is common practice at most of the petroleum refinery globally. The problems are facing due to reprocessing of slop oil by petroleum refineries is also similar in nature hence this research work will provide knowledge sharing of problems as well as available solution to these common problems. The presentation will have quite useful experimental research data with output results which highly useful for refinery operation, technical service, research people hence they can understand and utilize knowledge to resolve their problems.
