Show keepin g U P wi cien e C n er V e science service service ca dosing Dosin of oil wells produces salts that ruin refinery units NEW YORK widespread use of acids to boost p doduc tion from oil wells has brought in in its wake a major trouble for the petroleum industry in the form of thousands of miles of ruined pipelines and hundreds of ruined refinery nery units petroleum engineers report here salts pounds of them produced largely as products byproducts by of the add acid dosing of wells are eating the walls of expensive pressure piping and plugging refinery reft nery tubes exacting a stupendous ec economic toll loll they reveal they are in addition lowering the value of residual oils and tars eating up in waste a considerable portion of the increased income earned by the use of the add acid process which increases the wells yield greater even than the cost of replacement parts and labor Is the loss caused by equipment being out of service while repairs are made P petroleum etro leum engineers engineer sore are turning increasing attention today however to this problem and report a number er of de salting methods methods of removing salts heat pressure and the addition of fresh water remove some odthe of the s salt a it from com commercial m erceal crude oil increasing the life of piping and refinery equipment greatly at a low cost A michigan installation described in petroleum technology by dr G gustav us egloff and a group of petrol petroleum eum engineers of the universal s al ol oil I 1 products company reduced the salts in the incoming brudes from to 5 pounds per thousand barrels barre Is incoming oil was mixed with about 10 per cent of water then heated to degrees under a pressure 0 of f 60 pounds the salt removal pounds tor for each 1000 barrels of oil handled reduced corrosion from a continual cause of breakdowns to a very minor maintenance factor chemicals to break up the shell of 0 emulsion which protects brine globules glo bules from the surrounding oil have been used with some success once this protective coating is destroyed st water particles settle out of the mixture very rapidly carrying the salt with them different chemicals are needed in each oil producing area and the search for a general de salting chemical agent suited to all types and mixtures of oil coming to a refinery is still going on electrical de salting in one plant decreased the salt content of the rude crud a oil from to 8 pounds per 1 1000 0 barrels this particularly corrosive crude oil from an arkansas field was mixed with water then subjected to an alternating potential of to volts |