Norman Lieberman – What is a reasonable salt content in the desalter effluent? Our chemical vendor says 90% salt removal in our single stage desalter is good. Are desalting chemicals really helpful?
--Pranab , India
Pranab – Desalting dispersant chemical is truly helpful. However, it is best added not to the desalter but to the crude charge tank to remove brine upstream of the desalter. I’m referring only to the oil soluble chemicals, not water soluble dispersants.
The 90% salt removal is not the best measure of desalter efficiency. Most of your salts (90%) are NaCl which is not subject to hydrolysis to HCl. Best just to measure the MgCl2 cone in desalter effluent which is the only salt in crude that will mostly hydrolyze at crude unit heater outlets of minus 700°F. CaCl2 also hydrolyzes, but typically in the hotter vacuum tower heater outlet.
--Norm Lieberman
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