DESALTER OPERATION

摘要

A petroleum desalting process is improved by introducing the an alkaline compound such as sodium carbonate into the water phase, preferably in the vicinity of the water/oil interface which forms between the oil and water layers. This makes the rapid and effective separation of the oil and water phases from the emulsion layer possible.

主权项

1. In a petroleum desalting process which comprises mixing a crude oil with water and passing the mixture of oil and water in the form of an emulsified oil/water mixture to a desalter vessel in which the emulsified oil/water mixture is subjected to an electric field to cause separation of the mixture into a denser water layer containing dissolved salts and a supernatant oil layer with the formation of a stabilized emulsion layer between the oil layer and the separated water layer, and removing the separated oil and water layers, the improvement comprising adding an alkaline metal compound to the water layer to destabilize the emulsion.