The British Petroleum Company, P.l.c.

Intevep, S.a.

Quadrise Limited

Alan Stockwell

Ignacio A Layrisse

Maria Luisa Chirinos

Jorge L Grosso

David E Graham

Peter Jeremy Dodd

A gas turbine is driven by combustion of a fuel which is a hydrocarbon oil-in-water emulsion. Successful operation is achieved with minimized corrosion of turbine blades by keeping the Na content of the emulsion to less than 1 ppm. Deionized water is generally to be used in making up the emulsion. Heavy oils can be used because their conversion to oil-in-water emulsion form makes them suited to the pre-atomization requirements of gas turbine combustion.

Emulsion fuels and their use in gas turbines

Asphaltenes and/or wax and/or water are removed from crude oil by contacting the crude oil with an organic solvent to dissolve the crude oil and precipitate asphaltenes and/or wax and separate the oil and water. Solvent is then separated from the deasphalted and/or dewaxed and/or dehydrated crude oil. Removing asphaltenes, wax and/or water reduces the viscosity of the crude oil and it can then be transported, e.g. by pumping through a pipeline, with less expenditure of energy.

Treatment of viscous crude oils

The salt content of crude oil is reduced by washing crude oil containing residual salt water with wash water of lower salinity than the water present in the crude oil and allowing the resulting mixture to settle into a layer of crude oil of reduced salt water content and a layer of saline water. The quantity of wash water employed is greater than 7.5% by volume of the crude oil. The saline water may be recycled and a proportion removed from the recycle stream and a corresponding quantity of water of lower salinity added. Washing with relatively large quantities of water results in the formation of a less stable emulsion. Consequently, less severe conditions are required to break it to recover the desalted crude oil.

Method for desalting crude oil

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Woking, United Kingdom

Alan Stockwell