DESALTER MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES
Bob Irvin, Ametek STC Business Unit, USA, evaluates the benefits of capacitance level and interface measurement
in desalter applications.
Petroleum refineries have thousands of level and
interface measurements. One of the most important
measurement applications is in the desalter, a process
unit that removes the salt dissolved in the water
within the crude oil.
Desalting is normally one of the first processes in
crude oil refining. If the salts are not removed from the
crude, several problems can occur in the refining
process including the formation of corrosive
hydrochloric acid. The benefits of removing salt
include increased crude throughput, less plugging
and scaling of the heat exchangers, and less corrosion
throughout the process.
All crude oil goes through a desalter before any
processing begins, if the desalter does not work
properly, the refinery will be short on feedstock and
may have to cut back operations or even shut down.
These units can run continuously without shutdowns
for a few years, hence why long-term reliability is
essential.
PROVEN SYSTEMS
Capacitance/RF admittance based continuous
interface systems are widely used by many refineries
in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world. These
systems are highly accurate, robust, and perfectly
suited to desalter applications for both total level and
interface.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS OF DESALTERS
A desalter is a heated pressure vessel with high
voltage grids. The unit separates the crude oil from
impurities such as water and sediment (salt, sand and
dirt). The “cleaned” crude goes into the refinery for
further processing, the water is treated and recycled,
while the sediment goes to waste disposal. If the clean
crude contains too much water, it slows downstream
processing, as any salt will cause corrosion, and any
sediment will foul the catalyst, which is used in
catalytic crackers and other processing units.
Conversely, if the water contains too much oil,
additional treatment costs are incurred.
Desalters use a transformer to generate a high
voltage electrostatic field, typically 20000 V, for the
grid. This field (combined with heat, pressure, and
chemical additives) forces the water and sediment to
coalesce into larger drops, becoming heavier and
falling to the bottom of the vessel.
Desalters typically operate at 300-400 psi(20-26 bar)
and 150-200C (300-400F). The processed crude oil
leaving the desalter is usually limited to a maximum
of 0.5% water, and the discharged water to 100 ppm
of oil.
Prior to feeding the crude oil into a desalter, it is
“washed”, which means it is mixed with fresh water to
dissolve the salts. This crude oil feed is partially or
completely emulsified. As the washed crude enters the
desalter it starts to separate into phases, oil on top,
water underneath, and emulsion (sometimes called
the “rag” layer) in the middle. The sediment collects
on the bottom of the vessel.
MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES
The overall challenge of the desalter is to separate
water from crude, to knock out sediment, to minimize
the number of chemical additives, and to maximise
throughput of “dry-clean” crude oil. This must be done
without discharging any oil in the wastewater. To
accomplish this, operators must understand the
process. They need to balance the use of chemicals
(both quantities and types) with product residence
time (throughput and velocity), thickness of the
emulsion layer, and water content or the output oil.
Specific measurement challenges are as follows:
BUILT-UP
The feedstock to the desalter may be heavy, medium,
or light crude oil, and may contain varying quantities
of wax and sulfides. Heavy oils and wax may coat
everything installed in the vessel, which can affect the
measuring instruments. However, high-quality
capacitive level instruments are not affected by this
build-up.
DENSITY
Variations in the crude, plus the contaminants in both
crude and water, will cause wide density variations in
both the oil and water phases.
EMULSION
The emulsion layer is a bound mixture of oil and water
that’s is between the water and “dry” crude oil. This
emulsion can vary from a couple of inches to several
feet thick, depending on the characteristics of the
crude oil and how the desalter is operated and
controlled. Emulsion containing medium of heavy
crude oils and high percentages of wax and sulfur can
be very difficult to break up. Emulsion control is a
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major consideration in desalter operation. For
maximum production, the top of the emulsion layer
should be kept as high as possible without overloading
the grids. Capacitance /RF admittance technology
offers a major advantage in this application, because
it measures the actual electrical interface. Keeping
this interface close to the grids helps coalesce the
water and solids more quickly and completely.
SEDIMENT
This accumulates at the bottom of the vessel in excel
of what is removed with the water. Desalters are
regularly “blown down” through a series of openings
to remove the sediment, sometimes with the help of
built-in water jets. However, the sediment is not
always fully removed and excess sediment build-up
will change the flow rate and reduce the desalter
efficiency. If sediment backs up into the measuring
range, the desalter may require and early shutdown
for cleaning. If the desalter has an internal stilling well
extending below the grids(required for internal
displacers), sediment tends to build up inside the
stilling well at a faster rate.
HIGH WATER
The electrostatic rid must be protected form and
overload. Grids are designed to provide high voltage,
not current (hence the term electrostatic). Only water
(present in the emulsion layer) will create a high
current in the grids, causing the transformer to
overload and trip the circuit breakers. Drexelbrooks
Grid Guard is designed to protect against this
happening.
SENSOR LOCATION
The continuous interface sensor must be installed at a
representative location.
This location is not always obvious as it depends on
the type of crude, flow rates, and how the desalter is
operated. The ideal sensor location is where the
samples are withdrawn. Sample taps are located on
the discharge side of the desalter. Operators draw
samples from these taps to determine the location of
and percentage of water in the different liquid phases
in the desalter.
LOW OIL
If the oil level gets too low it will mix and be
discharged with wastewater. However, there are
products available, such as Drexelbrook’s water dump
guard, which help protect against this.
CONTINUOUS INTERFACE MEASUREMENT
The most important desalter operation requirement is
to control the interface between the oily water in the
emulsion layer and the wet crude oil. Capacitance/RF
admittance instruments have an edge in making this
measurement, particularly in heavy and high wax
crudes. With manpower in short supply, most
desalters are operated semi -or fully- automated with
instrumentation.
For maximum production, the emulsion layer should
be maintained as close as safely practical to the grids.
Keeping the emulsion close to the grids increases the
coalescence, thereby keeping the emulsion thinner. If
this is done, less emulsion breaking chemicals are
required to maintain and ideal emulsion thickness.
Operators are expected to minimize the quantities of
these chemicals, since they are one of the few variable
costs in this operation.
There are a series of sample cocks down the side of a
desalter, with pipes that may extend up to 5 ft inside
the vessel. Operators draw samples to tell them what
is happening inside the desalter.
The interface is bet controlled with a continuous
transmitter. Some users prefer one (or more)
horizontally mounted point interface controls. A
transmitter gives the operator a much better picture
of what is happening in the vessel. In addition, it
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allows the operator the flexibility to raise or lower the
interface a few inches when conditions change. The
heavier the oil and the thicker the emulsion, the
greater the advantages of a continuous transmitter.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
The sensing elements should be installed in the vessel
at the location where the greatest separation has
taken place. The sensing element should not be
installed in an external chamber (also called bridle,
side arm, of float cage). Performance is rarely
satisfactory in an external chamber as this interface
does not accurately represent the in-vessel interface
at the representative location. The interface in an
external chamber is determined by the head applied
to the lower fill leg and cannot be used to control the
emulsion-oil interface.
These chambers can also fill with sediment. This is
important to remember as refineries always want
sensors that can be isolated when used in on-stream
continuous processing vessels. However, it must be
stressed that the sensing element should be inside the
vessel to make a reliable desalter interface
measurement.
If you are trying to replace and internal displacer, the
desalter will have an existing internal stilling well. The
stilling well must be removed of at least cut off below
the grids. As with external chambers, the interface in
an internal stilling well may not be representative of
the actual vessel interface, excess sediment will
accumulate inside.
Obviously, the selection of a highly reliable sensing
element is critical when installed directly in the vessel.
Capacitance/RF admittance sensors have proven
reliable in thousands of installations throughout the
world.
CUT MONITOR
The purpose of the desalter is to furnish dry, salt-free
crude oil to the refinery. Oil containing too much
water cannot be processed efficiently by the refinery.
Water content should be continuously measured in-
line to ensure it is on-specification.
An ideal combination and quality of emulsion-
breaking chemicals exists for a specific crude oil and
set of processing conditions. With this combination
and quantity, the chemical cost is reduced and
throughput is maximized.
Operators tend to use excess chemicals to “be safe”.
A fair quantity of excess chemicals will increase
chemicals will increase cost but not affect the result,
but if this excess is too large, the emulsion will bind
and cause desalter malfunction. When the emulsion
binds, the process stops. They either have to increase
temperature and pressure and/ or pump out the crude
into another vessel. From there, they mix it with
untreated crude and feed it back through the desalter
to get the process restarted.
Most desalter chemical additions are delivered by
metering pumps with the feed rate manually set.
Chemical control is considered an art. However,
automatically controlling this chemical addition is
becoming more the norm. automatic chemical control
requires and on-line percentage water measurement
of the clean crude.
A cut monitor monitors the percentage of water in
crude oil. It may be used as an indicator for operator
information. For automatic control, the output of the
cut monitor is tied to a chemical metering pump. As
the water percentage increases in the cleaned crude
oil, the chemical feed rate increases. When the water
percentage drops, the feed rate decreases.
Experienced operators may be reluctant to use
automatic chemical control, but doing so can reduce
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the cost of chemicals as much as 50% or more. This
instrument is also called a basic sediment and water
(BS&W) monitor. Capacitive based cut monitors are
an excellent instrument for this measurement.
GUARDING THE GRID
If a conductive fluid (water or oily water in the
emulsion) touches the grids, circuit breakers will trip
and the grids will shut down. To prevent this from
happening, a modified cut monitor may be mounted
horizontally just under the grids. Typically, it is
recommended that this type of instrument is used
with 0 to 10% range. The instrument output will start
to increase when wet oil in the emulsion is present to
warn operators of a potential desalter shutdown.
Output will increase up to a maximum when water or
oily water in the emulsion reaches the sensor.
Unlike the standard cut monitor, this is not a precise
measurement, but a concentric shield is
recommended to isolate the probe from the high
voltage grids. A ground rod may be required above the
sensing element, depending on the cut monitor sensor
location, to prevent the electrostatic field from
affecting the signal.
INTERFACE CONTROL
Some refineries prefer to use continuous system to
control this interface. When the process is very stable
and a minimum of emulsion is present, this works out
well. When it is not stable, continuous system allow
the operator to see what is happening to the
interface, allowing for better control. Capacitance/RF
admittance type instruments may be used for this
measurement. These instruments are removable and
integrally mounted.
WATER DUMP GUARD.

Water with sediment is periodically or continuously

drawn off the bottom. If the water discharge valve
sticks open (usually due to sediment building up on the
valve seat), oil can be discharged to waste. It is
desirable to have a low oil alarm in the desalter to
signal if oil gets too low. As an option, capacitance/RF
admittance transmitter low oil alarm can be used
proportional control of the water discharge valve/low
oil alarm.

With very heavy oils, there can be a roll over where

the oil becomes the bottom layer of the interface. This
happens when the oil is heavier than the water. This is
called can inverted interface. A water dump guard will
also alarm in case this roll-over occurs.

SUMMARY

The desalter process in crude oil refining is a critical

application that requires reliable and accurate level
and interface control. Capacitance/RF admittance
technology products have been used for decades in
these processes with a field proven history of
providing reliable long-term performance.

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