ABSTRACT

This report aims at designing and understanding a framework for the fabrication of a natural filter for
the crude oil filtration process. Waste Water treatment is the process of separating the contaminants
from the waste water. It consists of several physical and chemical processes in order to filter the
elements out of it. Filtration of crude oil is done for removing impurities such as sand, salt, metals and
other organic as well as non-organic contaminants. Petrochemical waste waters often require a
combination of treatment methods to remove oil and other contaminants before discharge. Separation
of different streams such as storm water is essential to minimize treatment requirements.

Oil is recovered using separation techniques. Here we would compare crude oil purity using traditional
procedures with the help of the proposed method. Three vessels which are connected by pipes will be
used. First vessel contains crude oil from desert with impurities which will be pumped to the second
vessel with intermediate filter. Two types of natural media are to be used, which has stones and nut
shells in it. The purified crude oil will be collected in the second vessel.

Tank2 Filter Tank1

The effective of the natural media will be studied and suitable modifications of the media will be made
to improve the contaminants removal efficiency. For heavy metals, a combination of precipitation and
filtration is used. For organics, a combination of air or steam stripping, granular activated carbon, wet
oxidation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis is used.
INTRODUCTION

Most lubricating oils come from the crude oil and for it, the crude oil must be sent through a refinery.
The refinery takes a lot of molecules from the crude oil. The molecules are of various sizes and
structures that can be used for different things. For example, gasoline, diesel and kerosene are all
derived from crude oil. Lubricating oil relates to hydrocarbon molecules of a particular size (in the
range from 26 to 40 carbons). The molecules that are used with gasoline and kerosene are smaller and
have fewer carbons in the structure of the molecule. The refinery puts these molecules in little silos
based on size and weight, and removes impurities, enabling each of the products from the crude oil to
be utilized.

Crude Oils can be divided into following four categories:

 Paraffin base
 Naphthenic base
 Asphalt base
 Mixed Base

Crude Oils are generally a mixture of the hydrocarbons and various non-hydrocarbon elements are also
present in the crude oils. The hydrocarbons present in the crude oil are of three types; paraffins,
Naphthenes and aromatics. In the process of dehydrogenation, a fourth type of hydrocarbon element
also comes into existence known as olefins.

Paraffins
This series is based on the rule that carbon atoms are formed by a single bong between them and other
bonds are saturated with the hydrogen atoms. The most common paraffin found in the crude oils is
methane which is followed by the series; ethane, propane and isobutene etc.
Olefins
Olefins are not naturally present in the crude oil, but these are formed during the filtration process.
There structure is almost similar to the paraffins but in these elements, at least two carbon atoms are
there with double bonds between them. Olefins are one of the most undesirable elements in the final
product as these accelerate the process of oxidization to a large extent. However, in Gasoline, some
quantity of olefins is beneficial.

Naphthenes
Naphthenes are cycloparaffin hydrocarbons in which all the carbon bonds are saturated from hydrogen.
There are several types of Naphthenes present in the crude oil which are classified according to their
boiling points and correlation factors.
Aromatics
Aromatics are significantly differentiated from Naphthenes and paraffins. These elements contain a
benzene ring that is highly stable and unsaturated. Aromatic hydrocarbons behave like a saturated
compound in the crude oil.
The objective of the project is to filter out the impurities out of the crude oil as they play a crucial role
in further processing of the product, which we get from crude oil distillation and the crude oil obtained
also need further processing for quality improvement as presence of some impurities nay cause
corrosion and catalyst poisoning. So, impurities and their pre-treatment removal that is very important
and some of the steps in case of the pre-treatment. Whether it is at the site or at the refinery that will be
discussing here and the crude oil desalting process because, there has been lot of the development in
the crude oil desalting, but normally because just to requirement of the process we are the two stage
crude oil desalting. Then the crude oil distillation various stream from the atmospheric and the vacuum
distillation column effect of the crude characteristic on the performance of the distillation. The
impurities when goes in the heat exchanger, gets stuck and block the tubes of the refinery. This ways,
the blockage of impurities actually affect the equipment of the refinery adversely.

The ORPIC- Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company has Omani crude oil as its
raw material and is processed to create photo chemical and important fuels. Omani crude oil is moved
forward in a procession in Min Al Fahal into fuel products. The two refineries together produce
capacity of 222,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The crude oil is turned into Gas oil, Liquid Petroleum gas
(LPG), Fuel oil, naphtha, Gasoline, and Jet Fuel. Including this, the aromatic plant has a production of
198,000 metric tons of benzene and 818,000 metric tons per annum of Par xylene. The Polypropylene
Plant has production up to 350,000 metric tons of polypropylene.

The slop oil generation from different kind of process units such as the crude unit 100 was the real
environmental concern that is about 10-40 m3/day of crude oil is directed to Oil water sewer system
(OWS) as slop oil is due to malfunctioning or from the upset of De-salter operation. The slop oil
produced from Waste Water Treatment and OWS keeps increasing in level in FRP, wet Slop Tank due
to the outer erratic delivery, in Steel Drums causing FOBS pilings.

Our scope of the project is limited to the study of the problem and degree of the solutions available for
the crude oil filtration.
LITERATURE REVIEW

Purification of crude oil is the physical separation of a chemical substance from foreign or impure
substances. There are several processes and techniques that are carried out for it, but we are considering
the most efficient of the technique and the main point of concern of the project objective is that the
separation process should be via a natural media.

Filtration is the mechanical process carried out to separate out solids from liquids or gases by a column
of porous sheet supplied through the feed stream. The columnar sheet is usually made up of the cloth or
membrane, which retains the solid and allows the liquid to pass through. Filtration has been the most
popular technique that is being carried out in many of the industrial crude oil refineries based
worldwide.

Centrifugation is another process of crude oil filtration, but is applicable to the light-weight particles
removal. The crude oil container is revolved at a very high speed with the help of an electric motor,
which would bring up the impurities (light-weighted) high above on the surface and the fine particles
would settle down, thereby separating out the impurities from the whole.

One of the most popular type of filtration techniques involves liquid-liquid extraction which involves
mixing of a solvent, which either is chosen to be the pure oil soluble or the solvent with impurity
affinity, to separate out the impurities in any of the two ways.

Adsorption another popular technique that is carried out to remove soluble impurities from a feed
stream by trapping the impurities on the surf of a solid substance, which usually is a activated carbon
which forms strong non-covalent bonds with the impurities. An example, very popular of the
adsorption technique is the chromatography that employs the adsorption of impurities on a packed bed
of solid to purify multiple components of a single feed stream.

Electrolysis has also been a very popular method, wince time long which involves the breakdown of
substances using an electric current. The supply of high voltage electric current to pass through this
crude oil, removes the impurities from the crude oil. Although this requires tremendous amount power
supply that too with a high voltage.

From among all the processes and the techniques available, we would study the most optimised and
efficient process of all of them which would remove the impurities from the crude oil through the
natural media. Throughout the project, our objective is to find the most optimised method of impurity
removal from crude oil.

DATA ANALYSIS

Three different Iranian crude oil samples with different asphaltene contents were used in this study. The
properties of the crude oil samples are summarized as following:

Crude oil Place In Iran Asphaltene Density Viscosity at Viscosity at

content 10C 40C
Labsefid Kuzestan 1.5 0.86 22.74 6.36
Foruzan Khark 4.36 0.88 26.36 8.7
Nowruz Khark 9.51 0.93 599.4 103.6

Two different cylindrical 19-channel ceramic monolith membranes made from alumina with pore
diameters of 0.2 μm and 50 nm were used.
The dimensions of the membrane were:
 length=1016 mm
 O.D. =30 mm
 I.D. of each channel=4 mm.
 Surface area= 0.24 m2.
The membrane was secured in a stainless steel housing and was sealed by two special o-rings which
were resistant to organic solvents and high temperatures.

The batch filtration unit included the membrane housing, a feed pump and two pressure gauges. Feed
was entered the housing from the tube side and permeate was collected from the shell side through a
ball valve located adjacent the bottom of the membrane housing. The crude oil, was entered the
circulating loop from a tank using the pump. A portion of the crude oil was always recycled to the feed
tank in order to adjust the desired feed flow rate.

The crude oil feed tank incorporated a heating element which would maintain the heavy oil at an
elevated temperature by means of electric power.

The feed pump had a capacity of:

 10 L/min at a maximum differential pressure of 10 bars
 Power=0.75 kW AC

The pump was also equipped with a graphite mechanical seal which could withstand high temperatures
up to 200 °C in the presence of organic solvents. The flow of the feed stream was controlled through
by-passing some portions of the stream to the feed tank. The over pressure of the system was controlled
by means of a pressure safety valve placed on top of the feed tank. Thermo couples and pressure
gauges were used to detect the temperature and pressure, respectively. The steel pipes and membrane
housing were thermally insulated. During each run, the flux of permeate was measured every 2 min for
a period of up to 4–5 h.

Prior to each experiment, 5 l of heavy crude oil was supplied to the feed tank and then the heating
devices were turned on. The system was purged with nitrogen to completely evacuate by removing any
trapped air. The feed pump was then turned on and the feed was circulated in the loop line. The V-6
valve was used to regulate the pressure of filtration system and a full open condition of V-6 valve
allowed the maximum flow of the fluid to circulate. Some light hydrocarbons which may evaporate
after depressurizing the shell side of the filter housing, and then were condensed by passing through the
condenser E-4. Once the system was stabilized, which usually does gain within 1.5 h, samples of
permeate were periodically collected from the sample line and weighed to determine the flux of
permeate.
CONCLUSION

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

FLUX OF PERMEATE AND ASPHALTENE REJECTION:

The membrane with pore size of 50 nm for the flux of permeate and asphaltene rejection are shown in
fig3.

Operating Conditions:
120 °C
200 kPa
Asphaltene content of the crude oil of 4.36 wt. %

The experiment was continued for about 4 h.

The colloidal size of the asphaltene particles is between 3 and 10 nm generally, depending upon the
asphaltene nature and thermodynamic conditions. By heating the crude oil up to a specific high
temperature, the size of asphaltene particles of the order of nanometer aggregates to form micrometer
size. During this period, the flux of permeate becomes one-third of initial value and became constant
and its rejection increases from 20 to 80 wt. %. The flux reduction can be attributed to the fouling of
the membrane due to gel layer or pore blocking formation. According to gel model, asphaltene particles
are retained by the membrane. By accumulation of asphaltene particles on the membrane surface, the
gel layer gets thicker and becomes the limiting factor in the flux of permeate. According to pore
blocking model, the asphaltene particles deposit within the membrane pores and block the pores
thereby decreasing the flux of permeate and blocking the pores. Furthermore, increasing the asphaltene
rejection can be explained by decrease in the pore size of the membrane and as a result of that,
decreasing the passage of fine asphaltene particle through the membrane.

2. EFFECT OF PORE SIZE AND FEED ASPHALTENE CONTENT ON THE MEMBRANE

FOULING RESISTANCE:
Figs. 4, 5, and 6 show the membrane fouling resistance versus time for crude oils of different
viscosities and asphaltene contents, and membranes with pore sizes of 0.05 and 0.2 μm. The figures
well describes that the resistance of the membrane increases with the time due to increase in the
thickness of gel layer on the membrane surface. The Figs. 5 and 6, depicts the situation after some
hours, the fouling resistance of membrane equals for membranes of different pore sizes.
If gel layer is formed:
Fouling resistance might be a function of fouling material specification
If pore blocking is occurred:
It could be a function of both membrane specification and fouling material size

Clean membrane resistance is a function of membrane specification and permeate viscosity has a strong
effect on resistances. Overall membrane resistance may be limited by clean or fouling resistances.
If overall membrane resistance for two different membrane pore sizes becomes equal, then we can
conclude and observe the following:
 Clean resistance is not the limiting resistance
 Gel layer has been formed on the membrane surface.
If overall membrane resistance for two different pore sizes did not become equal, then we can conclude
and observe the following:
 Clean membrane resistance is limiting resistance
 Pore blocking has been occurred.

Similarity of overall resistances on membranes of two different pore sizes, according to Figs. 5 and 6,
reveals that the dominant mechanism for asphaltene filtration is gel layer formation. Furthermore, the
gel layer model is also well applicable to Fig. 4.

3. EFFECT OF PORE SIZE AND FEED ASPHALTENE CONTENT ON FLUX OF

PERMEATE:

The flux of permeate versus time for membranes of two pore sizes is shown in Fig. 7.

As shown in the above figure, the flux of permeate decreases with time due to the membrane fouling
during the separation. After some hours, the flux of permeate becomes constant and reaches an almost
equal value for both pore sizes. According to Fig. 7, the initial flux of permeate was 18 kg/(m2.h)
which came down to one third of its initial quantity after 6 h. The flux of permeate for three crude oils
with different asphaltene contents is shown in Fig. 8. The membrane pore size was 0.2 μm.

As it is obvious from Fig. 8, the flux of permeate decreased and asphaltene content in crude oil
increased. This phenomenon depicts the formation of gel layer for asphaltene separation. With
increasing the asphaltene content:
The thickness of the gel layer will be increased
Higher fouling resistances as well as lower fluxes of permeate would be resulted.

In the pore blocking model, low contents of particles may block the pores and sudden decrease in the
flux of permeate may occur for different contents of fouling materials. With increasing asphaltene
particles in the crude oil, the interactions among asphaltene molecules are increased and larger
asphaltene aggregates are formed. This led to more asphaltene precipitation in the crude oil. The
precipitated asphaltene particles formed a thick gel layer on the membrane surface and as a result of
that, there is a stark decrease in the flux of permeate for heavier crude oils. Accordingly, the flux of
permeate somehow depends to the feed asphaltene content.

4.THE EFFECT OF PORE SIZE AND FEED ASPHALTENE CONTENT ON ASPHALTENE

REJECTION:

The asphaltene rejection for different asphaltene contents at optimum temperatures was diagnosed.

The results shown in Fig. 9 reveal that the asphaltene rejection for membrane with a pore size of 0.05
μm was in the vicinity of 60 to 87% while the same for the membrane with a pore size of 0.2 μm varied
between 44 and 63%.

The graph depicts that:

If gel layer is not formed on the surface of membrane, then a majority of asphaltene particles will pass
from 0.2 μm pores and otherwise the particles are so fine that can partially pass from 0.05 μm pores.

Another observation is that the highest rejection occurred for higher asphaltene contents are related to
thicker gel layers and more effective separations.

5. EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE RESISTANCE OF FOULING:

The parameter Rf for the membrane with a pore size of 0.2 μm versus time at different temperatures is
shown in Fig. 10. The experiments were conducted in the vicinity of 100 to 200 °C.

The increasing temperature caused a reduction in the crude oil viscosity. Therefore, the crude oil could
permeate faster from the membrane and thus separation increased. According to these results, the
resistance of fouling was increased with temperature. The increase in Rf, could be as a result of
asphaltene precipitation on the membrane surface as well as increasing the gel layer on the surface of
the membrane.

Crude oil filtration was conducted with ceramic monolith membranes which clarified that the dominant
role in asphaltene separation is played by the gel formation on the membrane surface. Asphaltene
particles are very fine and finer than pore sizes, in spite of this its adsorption takes place at membrane
surface and due to the aggregation of these particles, a gel layer is obtained over the surface which
effectively separates asphaltene particles from crude oil. The gel model well explains that the flux of
permeate and membrane overall resistance are not strong functions of membrane pore size. Thicker gel
formation on membrane surface was a result of increasing asphaltene content.

Future Work

The future work will be done in Caledonian college of engineering, Oman in semester B of the year
2014-2015.

PROJECT ACTIVITY PLAN

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ACTIVITY / Weeks

Selection of Title of
the project

Discussion on the
Title of the project
with the supervisor
 M
i
d
Literature review
T
e
r
m
Final report and
presentation

Conclusion Future Actions

Project must be support by Government and Support Backdrop
Society to bring good for both.
Well organized technology used so that waste Top Technology
water purifying process will be improved
Residential People may not like this system. We need to meet them and explain them in
brief.
Harm during Transferring equipment’s. We can Insured to cut down the risk

Common process/project may occurs same We check the schedule to avoid it.
time.

Usage of Technology in various condition. Expansive deep study may reduce it

Uncertainty can happen.

Equipment’s may not be top Quality
Late/delay in giving heavy equipment
Language problem for both
New Innovative Products usage
Maintenance after Installation
Checking all the machines for quality test
Make proper schedule to reduce this
Translator required
Proper Training before usage
Give to Expert Vendor and do manual checks.
Future-Work-Identifications: