Case History
Crude Unit Desalter Cleaned With 85% Time Savings
5-weeks into 5-days Saving $196,000, No Confined Space Entry
CHALLENGE
Desalter turnaround for a crude unit is slow and difficult after 7-years of buildup.
SOLUTION
â–ª Using Solvent-H+ and other FQE products expedited the cleaning process.
â–ª Refinery plant personnel executed the tasks to remove costs of 3rd party contractors.
RESULTS
Removed 100% of mechanical
cleaning costs
Less time on desalter allowed
full unit turnaround ahead of schedule
No confined entry permits
necessary
No waste disposal was required
as all foulant dissolved and reprocessed
Client pleased enough to clean
2nd unit during the outage
TAR of Desalter
Dealing with the accumulation of solids after seven years of operation is a challenge, given the refinery’s utilization of diverse crude sources like Western Canadian Select (WCS) to process. The inherent nature of the desalter unit leads to the gradual accumulation of tough deposits of heavy organic solids and mineral salts over its operational lifespan, ultimately forming a dense solid mass.Â
CHEMICALS UTILIZED
Past Turnarounds Led to Multiple Weeks of Confined Space Entry
In the previous maintenance cycle, a competing chemical product and steam were used to rumble the desalter unit (14’ by 90’), but the results were unsatisfactory. After two weeks, the incumbent chemical with rumble proved ineffective in removing the buildup and left 5-feet of solid hard mass. Confined space entry which was necessary to manually extract remaining solid mass using shovels and buckets, taking another 3-weeks in time. Therefore, the project took 5-weeks in total to clean the unit.
Cleaning Power
Adding FQE Solvent-H+ to the cutter stock not only enhances the cleaning
capabilities but enhances the solvency power to attack and dissolve the heavy
hydrocarbon (i.e., asphaltenes) deposits and binder that hold the inorganic solids in place that form the bottom layer. Additionally, using circulation will achieve improved mixing and allow the deposits to be broken apart and removed from the unit. With the improper chemical selection, as had happened before, rumbling would be less effective as the heat applied would only work to age and cook the solid mass in place.
Circulation with FQE Solvent-H+
The method takes less total time at 3-days and less steps making the entire process easier. The plant personnel at the site felt comfortable and completed all tasks themselves, removing the need for contractors. The refinery stopped and drained the unit. They applied 3-cycles of fill, circulate, and drain with the use of Solvent-H+ added to a typical cutter stock to dissolve the crude oil buildup. All circulation materials were sent to the slop tank to be rerun. There was no waste. With less steps and the effectiveness of Solvent-H+ in dissolving and removing the buildup in less time, makes it a valuable option for refineries looking to improve their cleanup processes.
The inspection of the vessel after cleaning determined that no mechanical cleaning was required as the remaining material was removed through the low-pressure washer. The refinery was able to resume production in 3.5 days, and our client was extremely satisfied.
Before
After
Not Just Faster, But with Improved Effectiveness and Safer
Other FQE products were utilized to meet the challenges of other specific hazards quickly and effectively. FQE LEL-Vapor and FQE H2S Scavenger were used to quickly knock out and remove any hazardous LELs/VOCs and H2S gas emissions. While FQE Pyrophoric was used at it is specifically formulated to pacify the pyrophoric iron sulfides found as deposits in the hard sludge material as a precautionary measure.
