October 2012 Oil and Gas Facilities 17

Pam Boschee
Oi l and Gas Faci l i ti es Editor
Advances in
Electrostatic Treatment
of Crude Oil
A
s operators produce more
opportunity crude oils, oils that
provide a higher refning margin
relative to other crudes, dehydration of
the oil becomes more difcult. Physical
properties of the crude oil, such as API
gravity, oil viscosity, and water density,
determine the challenges and drive the
selection of technologies to be used for
efective dehydration.
Opportunity crude oils are
generally heavy, described as crude oils
with API gravities of approximately
20 or less. Very heavy oil is defned as
below 14API, and extra heavy oil is
11API and below. Known problematic
crude oils include Venezuelan Merey
(16API), Mexican Maya (21API),
and Doba (21API), produced
inChad.
Characteristics of the heavy crude
oils that contribute to difculty in
dehydration include reduced oil/water
density diferences that decrease the
forces needed for separation of water
droplets, higher crude oil viscosity, and
smaller water droplets resulting from
heavy crude oil production techniques.
To dehydrate crude oils with high
viscosities, the dehydration treaters
must be larger than those used for
lower-viscosity oils or the temperature
must be increased to lower the viscosity
to achieve efective dehydration.
However, there is an upper limit
of approximately 300F for most
dehydration processes.
Higher operating temperatures
require increased size of treater power
units. Larger supply systems and
substations are required to provide the
power to these units. A disadvantage
to this approach is that the increased
power results in electrical current
thatheats the crude oil and causes
other issues.
Electrostatic Technologies
Usedin Treaters
Typically, crude oil dehydration
treaters use retention times, heat,
and alternating current (AC)
electrostatic technology to treat the
oil. Paper SPE 156299 described
methods of enhancing the electrical
feld in bulk oil treaters by the use of
combined AC and direct current (DC)
electrostatictechnologies.
Crude oil conductivity afects the
electrostatic felds inside the treaters. If
the crude oil conductivity is very low,
the electrostatic charge has difculty
reaching the dispersed water droplets.
If conductivity is very high, some of
the electrostatic charge may dissipate
into the crude oil and never reach the
water droplets.
Te process temperature in the
crude oil treater afects the conductivity
of the crude oil (Fig.1).Te crude oil
conductivity canincrease several times
from ambient temperature to process
temperature in the treater. Te efect
ofincreased crude oil conductivity
in an AC treater is a decreased
electrostatic feld, leading to less
efective dehydration because the lower
voltage felds cannot reach the small
water droplets.
Coalescence of water droplets
dispersed in crude oil occurs when the
droplets collide with enough energy
to overcome barriers to coalescence,
such as surface flms adsorbed on
the droplets surface, dispersion
of fnes around the droplets, and
interfacialtension.
Electrostatic felds generate
forces that can create conditions
for improved coalescence of water
droplets, resulting in improved
separation of water from the
crudeoil.
Paper SPE 156299 described
three types of primary electrostatic
forces (Fig. 2).
Typical
High
50 100 150 200 250 300
Temperature, F
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
C
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
,

n
S
/
m
Fig. 1Crude oil conductivity as a
function of the crude oil temperature.
Retrotting a dual polarity unit to a dual frequency unit requires the installation of a
transformer and an electronic control system.
18 Oil and Gas Facilities October 2012
Dipolar forces result in the
watermolecules aligning themselves
inan electrostatic feld. A water
droplet made up of such aligned
molecules is polarized with a positive
charge on one end and a negative
charge on the other end. Polarized
water droplets are attracted by other
water droplets.
Dipolar attraction is efective for
high-water-cut emulsions because the
water droplets are larger and more
closely spaced. When water droplets
are smaller, as in a low-water-cut
emulsion, dipolar attraction is less
efective because the water droplets are
smaller and farther apart.
Electrophoresis moves water
droplets horizontally between
electrode plates in a uniform DC
electrostatic feld. With a force of up to
four orders of magnitude larger than
dipolar attraction, the water droplets
collide more frequently.
Dielectrophoresis, the weakest
of the three electrostatic forces, is
approximately half the strength
of the dipolar attraction force.
Polarized water droplets move in a
nonuniform electrostatic feld toward
the direction of convergence of the
electrostaticfeld.
Electrical Field Enhancement
AC crude dehydration technology
applies an alternating electric feld at
50 to 60 Hz to the emulsion, causing
the water droplets to deform because
of dipolar attraction force. Te
attraction force between oppositely
charged ends of the water droplets
speeds up their coalescence.
Treaters using AC felds are
efective for bulk water removal, but
their performance sufers when lower
water cuts are processed. Te lower
water cut means the water droplets
are farther apart, which weakens their
dipolar attraction.
DC felds use electrophoresis to
enhance water droplet collision rates
and promote coalescence. Because
the application of a DC feld to an
emulsion with signifcant water
content results in electro-corrosion,
the method is limited to treaters used
in refned products.
Dual polarity technology (Fig. 3)
applies a weak AC feld to remove bulk
water, followed by a stronger DC feld
to remove remnant water droplets.
Te potential for electro-corrosion is
eliminated because the DC feld exists
only between the electrode plates
In the DC feld, the water droplets
acquire a charge and are accelerated
to the electrode of opposite polarity.
Te droplet then acquires the charge of
that electrode and is accelerated back
to the opposite electrode. Te droplets
movement in the DC feld is mainly
because of electrophoresis. Te AC
felds dipolar forces aid in deforming
the droplets. As the droplets collide,
they become larger and separate out
of the DC feld, settling down to the
separated brine phase in the bottom of
the treater.
Te most recently developed
of the enhanced electrostatic feld
technologies is dual frequency. Te
Dipolar attraction is the electrostatic attraction force
between oppositely charged ends of water droplets.
Electrophoresis is the electrical attraction between the
charged electrode and oppositely charged water
droplets in a uniform electric field.
Dielectrophoresis is the movement of polarized water
droplets in a nonuniform electrostatic field with the
movement toward the direction of convergence
of the electrostatic field.
Fig. 2Three primary electrostatic forces.
O
i
l

f
l
u
x
Electrodes
DC
field
DC
field
DC
field
AC
field
Bulk water
removal
+ +
- -
AC power
supply
High-voltage transformer
Fig. 3Typical dual polarity conguration.
October 2012 Oil and Gas Facilities 19
dual frequency technology was
developed by Cameron; the frst
patent was issued in 2004, Gary Sams,
managing director of research and
development at Cameron Process
Systems, said.
In AC/DC treatment of crude
oils with high conductivity, one set of
electrode plates experiences charge
decay while the alternate set of plates is
being charged. Te decay can result in
the loss of the DC feld. To minimize
this efect, the time between charges
must be decreased by increasing the
frequency of the power source.
Te DC feld in a treater can
be strengthened by replenishing the
voltage on the electrodes at a faster rate.
Dual frequency technology restores
voltages on the electrodes at frequencies
of 800 to 1,600 Hz compared to 50 to
60 Hz for a traditional AC system. As
a result, the beneft of the DC feld is
regained in high-conductivity crude
oils, Sams said.
Te low interfacial tension of many
crude oils can be used to promote
droplet coalescence by energizing the
water droplet surface. Modulating
the power at a frequency close to the
resonant frequency of the dispersed
water droplets can achieve this.
Te frequency of the power supply
(base frequency) is set to a value high
enough to minimize feld decay and is
modulated (pulse frequency) at a rate
sufcient to energize the water droplet
surfaces. Te high sustained feld
strength energizes the droplets so that
they readily coalesce.
Fig. 4 illustrates the amplitude
modulation of the base frequency
possible with this technology. Te
bimodal frequency modulation in the
dual frequency system uses the same
electrode confguration as that used in
the dual polarity technology.
Sams said that, for retroftting a
dual polarity unit to a dual frequency
unit, the only physical changes
required are the power unit and the
electronic control system for adjusting
the base frequency and modulating the
DC feld.
He said that there are more than
50 installations of the dual frequency
technology worldwide, representing
more than 100 transformers. Some
operators using the dual polarity
technology have pushed it beyond
its capacities or their oil proved to be
more difcult than they expected it
to be. Following replacement of the
transformers at the existing vessel to
convert to the dual frequency technology,
operators typically see a performance
beneft. Teyre back to spec and can
potentially push more crude.
Process tests performed at
the Cameron Technology Center
in Houston verifed that crude oil
dehydration capacity (fux) can
be improved by using AC/DC
technologies instead of conventional
AC technology.
Paper SPE 156299 cited
improvements of fux rate of
25%volume/volume by using dual
polarity technology, and
125%volume/volume by using
dualfrequency technology.
Critical
voltage
2040 kV
Threshold
voltage
1225 kV
Pulse
frequency
Base
frequency
Sinusoidal wave
(or trapezoidal,
triangular, square,
etc.)
Droplet
charge follows the
modulation waveform
Time
P
r
i
m
a
r
y

v
o
l
t
a
g
e
,

v
o
l
t
s
600
400
200
0
200
400
600
Fig. 4Bimodal frequency modulation in the dual frequency system.
50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000
Dual
frequency
Dual
polarity
Conventional
AC
BOPD per treater
Fig. 5Dehydration treatment capacities for 1280 ft treater using different tecnologies
for 20.6 API crude oil.
TABLE 1TREATER SIZES REQUIRED TO TREAT 50,000 BOPD OF WET CRUDE TO 0.2% BASIC SEDIMENT AND WATER
Technology
Crude
API
Brine salinity
(%)
Inlet BS&W
(%)
Temperature
C
Vessel diameter
(ft)
Length
(ft)
Length Savings
(%)
Conventional AC 18 4 15 100 14 94
Dual polarity 18 4 15 100 14 78 17
Dual frequency 18 4 15 100 14 58 38
Conventional AC 30 12 15 40 12 56
Dual polarity 30 12 15 40 12 46 18
Dual frequency 30 12 15 40 12 36 36
20 Oil and Gas Facilities October 2012
Fig. 5 shows the dehydration
capacities for three diferent
treaters with identical size but
using diferent electrostatic
technologies (conventional AC,
dual polarity technology, and dual
frequencytechnology).
Table 1 shows treater size
comparisons using the three electrostatic
technologies on 30API crude oil
with 12% salinity formation water
and 18API crude oil with 4% salinity
formation water at 50,000BOPD, 0.2%
basic sediment and water.
Besides requiring a smaller
footprint, the use of shorter treaters
on foating production systems is that
trim issues with the foater will have less
of a negative efect on the treater level
control system. With longer treaters
containing level sensors in one end of
the treater, the efect of a 1 trim on the
foater can push the oil/water interface
outside the measuring range of the level
sensor, requiring the operator
to use manual level control of the
treater interface.
Smaller treater size is also
important for lower installation
cost and projects with shipment
sizerestrictions.
Implementation of Dual
Frequency Technology
Operators of the dual frequency
technology require initial training.
Once the technology is tuned and
demonstrating that the parameters
are operating successfully on the
crude being processed, the parameters
really dont need to be adjusted again,
Sams said. Te operators need
to understand that they shouldnt
be tweaking knobs for the sake of
tweaking knobs, because that will get
the process out of sync quickly.
Operators can also be reticent to
make adjustments to the technology
until they gain an understanding of
what it can do for them. Once they
have that understanding and realize
that they have another tool available to
them besides chemistries, temperatures,
and reduction of fow rates, they realize
they now have a means to tune their
operations at a fairly modest cost. Tey
are no longer incurring the same costs
for chemistries or heating, and theyre
not losing production, he said. OGF
For Further Reading
SPE 156299 Benefts of Using
Advanced Electrostatic Fields in
Crude Oil Dehydrators and Desalters
by Erik Sellman, Gary W. Sams, and
S. Pavan Kumar B. Mandewalkar,
Cameron Process Systems.
OTC 23200 Field Implementation
of New Electrostatic Treating
Technology by John M. Walsh,
Shell International, Gary Sams and
JosephLee, Cameron.
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October 2012 Oil and Gas Facilities 21