A. Ould Brahim, N.M. Al Mteiri

The petroleum refining industry transforms crude oil into various components such as diesel, jet fuel, and petroleum gases. One of the essential preliminary steps is electrochemical desalting—also known as cells—which uses electrochemical cells to remove salts from crude oil. These cells typically consist of an anode and a cathode; when an electric current is applied, it triggers ion exchange and facilitates salt removal. This is critical because salts can cause corrosion in processing equipment, reduce refining efficiency, and degrade product quality. The aim of this work is to optimize salt and water removal efficiency in an industrial crude oil desalting plant under steady-state conditions. Operational data from the plant were collected and used for simulation. The comparison between simulation and real data confirmed the accuracy of the simulation model. The results indicate that the electric field significantly impacts process efficiency, improving water removal efficiency from 93% to 98%.

Electrochemical desalting, corrosion, crude oil, parameters study, refining

Pages: 34-38