Experimental study of desalting crude oil

Abstract

The project was done on AL-NOOR crude oil the process desalting was difficult for these reasons. The variance amongst the oil density & water density is small and oil’s viscosity is relatively large so that the rate of droplet setting of water is few in the desalter. Heavier oils as well tend to include additional amounts of naturally occurred emulsifiers in comparison to the lighter crude oil this behave coalescence of a water droplet and allow the formation of stable emulsions in the desalter.
The aims of the current study are: Find a new method to extract water from crude oil emulsions, which involves: Determine conductivity of water in crude oil which in turn help to determine the salt amount in the emulsion and determine the volume of extracted water from crude oil.
The importance of this research comes from the fact that it addresses the removal of reservoirs water from crude oil in order to reduce the wear and tear of equipment for storing and transporting crude oil, which contributes to reducing costs and maintaining environmental integrity.