Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Victor Alva

Brian D Albert

Jose X Simonetty

Theodore Trent Trier

Magaly C Barroeta

Michael Louis Hergenrother

Owen P Jacobs

Jennifer A Gillett

John R Faber

Magaly A Barroeta

A petroleum desalting process in which the oil/water emulsion layer which forms in the desalter vessel between the settled water layer and the settled oil layer is separated into the oil and water components by contact with a heated high boiling hydrocarbon to break the emulsion and vaporize water from the emulsion in a flash drum. The vessel has an emulsion outlet for removing an emulsion stream from the emulsion layer and a conduit connecting the emulsion withdrawal port to an inlet of an optional settling drum to effect and initial separation into an oil-enriched phase and a water phase with the oil-enriched phase led to the flash drum.

Desalter emulsion separation by hydrocarbon heating medium direct vaporization

Desalter emulsion separation by direct contact vaporization

An improved separator for desalting petroleum crude oils which may be operated in a continuous manner under automatic control; the improved desalter is therefore well suited to modern refinery operation with minimal downtime. A portion of the emulsion layer is withdrawn from the desalter through external withdrawal ports according to the thickness and position of the emulsion layer with the selected withdrawal header(s) being controlled by sensors monitoring the position and thickness of the emulsion layer. The withdrawn emulsion layer can be routed as such or with the desalter water effluent to a settling tank or directly to another unit for separation and reprocessing.

Separator for desalting petroleum crude oils having rag layer withdrawal

Growing community of inventors

Everett, WA, United States of America

Victor Alva