How to separate oil from water in water-containing heavy oil
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How to separate oil from water in heavy oil containing 4% water? I hope to get a relatively clean product; it can be used directly as a product right after being obtained. Can the liquid separation tank separate out such a small amount of water? If a distillation tower is used, the oil is too heavy to be circulated using a regular reboiler ； If steam stripping is used, even more water is introduced.
What about stripping with another gas? Like nitrogen?
Due to the high density of heavy oil, separation by gravity settling yields poor results and efficiency. Using hot nitrogen stripping is a method to carry water to the top of the tower, but due to the high viscosity of heavy oil, the operation can be difficult to control. In fact, as long as the water content is accurately measured, it should be possible to deduct it during the trading process.
Is it possible to avoid using a distillation tower and instead use something that can filter water but not heavy oil? White clay can filter water, but it is ineffective for heavy oil.
There must be requirements for the product; it probably won’t work. Those who buy it will also need to remove the excess moisture.
If it is a large-scale and continuous processing, a dedicated dehydration unit can be installed. Dehydrating white clay is too costly, and it is not effective for heavy oil. Light oil is used to appropriately dilute the heavy oil in order to reduce its density; an appropriate amount of demulsifier is added to the heavy oil (depending on whether an emulsifier has already been added to it), and then electric field dehydration is carried out at a certain temperature and pressure. The equipment that can be used for this purpose is a desalination and dehydration tank for crude oil. The dehydrated mixed heavy oil is flashed to recover hydrocarbon oil for recycling, while the heavy oil exits the unit; the water is discharged from the dehydration tank for treatment.
If it is a large-scale and continuous processing, a dedicated dehydration unit can be installed. Light oil is used to appropriately dilute the heavy oil in order to reduce its density; an appropriate amount of demulsifier is added to the heavy oil (depending on whether an emulsifier has already been added to it), and then electric field dehydration is carried out at a certain temperature and pressure. The equipment that can be used for this purpose is a desalination and dehydration tank for crude oil. The dehydrated mixed heavy oil is flashed to recover hydrocarbon oil for recycling, while the heavy oil exits the unit; the water is discharged from the dehydration tank for treatment.
It is a continuous reaction. I’m wondering if there are any types of molecular sieves or similar things that can be used to filter water?
Use light oil as a blend? This also requires pilot-scale testing; otherwise, one wouldn’t dare to put it into operation. But we are not a research institute, so this condition does not apply to us
Yes, others also say to use hot nitrogen for stripping. We haven’t done this either; it would be good to refer to any existing devices if they are available. Also, may I use superheated steam? Will there be no condensation water then? Has anyone heard of it? It’s also cheaper than hot nitrogen.
If only the removal of free water is considered, a coalescer can be taken into account； If removing the emulsified water simultaneously is considered, demulsification must be carried out first.