Behaviour of Ionic Liquid-Derived Naphthenate Salts Under Desalting Conditions

Abstract

Pyrenees crude oil containing high napthenic acids (NAs) content of more than 1.6 mg KOH/g oil was treated with methyltrimethylammonium methylcarbonate [N4441][MeCO3] as to reduce its acidity to the refinery permissible limit of 0.3 mg KOH/g oil. The treated crude oils are subjected to Emulsion Stability Test (EST) as to mimic the operating conditions of a desalter. The results indicate the electrostatic conditions can facilitate the recovery of the napthenate salts post neutralization with high recovery rate of more than 79.6% with basic sediments & water (BSW) to be 1.96%. The conductivity of the treated crude oil also was found to increase as a function of temperature. The ionic liquid mediated-deacidification of crude oil can be performed under existing desalting conditions should the recovery of the naphthenate salts is acceptable at 70%.