The Study on Removing the Salts in Crude Oil via Ethylene Glycol Extraction

Based on the characteristics that ethylene glycol (EG) has strong solubility of inorganic salts and ethylene glycol and water are soluble, a new process was proposed where glycol was taken as a solvent for extraction to separate the salts in crude oil in order to achieve highly efficient removal of salt from crude oil. This paper investigates the main factors in the desalting process of glycol extraction, including the mixing intensity, mixing time, extraction temperature, sedimentation time, and other factors. The results showed that when mixing intensity was 8 kr/min, mixing time was 8 min, the extraction temperature was 110 °C, and the settling time was 180 min, the salt content of the first extraction was 7.14 mg NaCl/L, and the salt content of the secondary extraction is 2.61 mg NaCl/L. The total desalination rate is 94%. It was found that the full contact of ethylene glycol and crude oil could promote the desalting process by using microscopic analysis. Ethylene glycol extraction desalting technolog...