Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Corning Incorporated

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Johnson, Paul Oakley

Sternquist, Brandon T

Dunning, Darryl L.

Drury, Kenneth Joseph

Partridge, Randall D

Lucchesi, Robert

Robert P Lucchesi

Mohsen Shahmirzadi Yeganeh

Randall David Partridge

Kenneth Joseph Drury

Paul Oakley Johnson

Richard W Flynn

George L Kellogg

David T Ferrughelli

Yibing Zhang

Yoshihiro Iwashita

Takanori Ueda

Thomas Bruno

Richard Bergman

Daniel Patrick Cherney

Brandon Thomas Sternquist

Geoffrey Marshall Keiser

Jessica L Vreeland

Darryl Lynn Dunning

George P Walchuk

Jessica Lynn Hegner

Pawel L Peczak

Apparatus, processes, and systems for removal of solids from a hydrocarbon stream. The present disclosure utilizes a surfactant to reduce interfacial tension between a hydrocarbon phase and a water (or aqueous) phase to promote solids to be pulled by gravity out of the hydrocarbon phase and into the water phase.

Apparatus and methods to remove solids from hydrocarbon streams

A petroleum desalting process in which the role played by the oil/bulk-resolved-water interface in the dehydration of the stabilized emulsion which forms in the desalter is recognized. The desalting process is improved by introducing the demulsifier and chemical high voltage electrodes. Water droplets in the mixture coalesce and settle towards the bottom of the vessel. A stabilized emulsion layer formed from the oil and the water with additives into the water phase and/or injecting chemical additives directly in the vicinity of the water/oil interface. This improved methodology that makes the rapid and effective delivery of chemical demulsifiers to the rag layer and/or oil/bulk-resolved-water interface possible. In operation, the desalting is carried out by mixing a crude oil to be desalted with water and passing the mixture of oil and water to the desalter vessel. The mixture enters the desalting vessel in the form of an emulsified mixture which is then separated by application of an electric field between emulsion-stabilizing solids from the oil forms above the interface between the denser water layer and the supernatant oil layer. A chemical demulsifier is added to the water layer in the region of the stabilized emulsion layer and/or directly into the emulsion layer itself. The separated water is removed as effluent through a water outlet at the bottom of the vessel and desalted oil is removed from the oil layer through an oil outlet at the top of the vessel.

Desalter operation

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.

A fuel separation method by which auxiliary fuel is separated from blended gasoline fuel for a flexible fuel vehicle capable of using ethanol-blended gasoline fuel, the method including the following steps (a) and (b): (a) a step in which, when the ethanol concentration is low, the blended gasoline fuel is separated by a polar separating membrane member at a relatively high separation temperature to obtain, at the permeation side of the membrane, a first auxiliary fuel enriched with the aromatic gasoline components and ethanol component, and (b) a step in which, when the ethanol concentration is high, the blended gasoline fuel is separated by a polar separating membrane member at a relatively low second separation temperature to obtain, at the permeation side of the membrane, a second auxiliary fuel enriched with the non-aromatic high-volatile gasoline components.

Fuel separation method

The present invention pertains to a pervaporation membrane process for the separation of high octane fuel components from a gasoline feed stream comprising feeding a mixed phase vapor-liquid feed to a cyclone separation means to separate the liquid from the vapor, then sending the saturated vapor to the membrane, thereby extending the useful life of the membrane.

Membrane separation process using mixed vapor-liquid feed

A pervaporation element includes a ceramic monolith having an array of parallel channels separated by porous channel walls extending along an axial length of the monolith, and a functional membrane coating a first plurality of the porous channel walls along the axial length of the monolith. The functional membrane functions to separate a fluid into a retentate portion and a permeate portion. The porous channel walls coated by the functional membrane define a plurality of discrete through segments, where each of the discrete through segments are separated from one another by a plurality of uncoated porous channel walls. Fluid entering the discrete through segments is separated into a retentate portion that exits in substantial portion through the discrete through segments and a permeate portion that exits the ceramic monolith radially outward through the uncoated porous channel walls and through a skin of the monolith.

Partition fluid separation

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Flemington, NJ, United States of America

Robert P Lucchesi