os ty Physical Processes —_( Desalting and Dehydration } “Crude oil often contains Y water, inorganic salts, suspended solids, and water- soluble trace metals. “These contaminants can cause Y corrosion, plugging, and fouling of equipment and poisoning of catalysts in catalytic processes.Desalting and Dehydration Desaited crude is drawn from the top and sent to the crude Hot water with lation tower Wastewater and Upon heating contaminants ae dicharged from bottom+ The desalted crude has to be separated into products, which each have specific uses. * Crude oil consists of thousands of different compounds and. as a consequence, it is Impossible and undesirable to separate It into chemically pure fractions. * The central separation step in every oil refinery is the distillation of the crude, which separates the various fraction}) according to theirFF ones 8 0© With this simple dis a satisfactory set of products is not obtained. The market calls for Y clean products (no sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, metals, etc.), Y gasoline (high octane number), Y more diesel (high cetane number), ¥ specific products (aromatics, alkenes, etc.), and Y less low-value fuel oil.“ With this simple distillation unit a satisfactory set of products is not obtained. — The market calls for ¥ clean products (no sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, metals, etc.), ¥ gasoline (high octane number). ¥ more diesel (high cetane number), Y specific products (aromatics, alkenes, etc.), and Y less low-value fuel oil.limitation of atmospheric distillation * Hydrocarbons should not be heated to very high temperature. ti, a tion Yeactions take place at >630 K. “Thermal decomposi Decomposition reactions (“thermal cracking” or “pyrolysis") are highly undesirable ¥ deposition of carbonaceous material, also referred to as coke, on the tube walls in heat exchangers and furnacesil refineries show large differences. Why? + Large differences is due to the ¥ difference in properties of the crude oil delivered ¥ requirements of the market + Especially for fuels in the transport sector, ¥ extensive processing is required in order to obtain products with satisfactory performance.