Combined heating and chemical treatment for oil recovery from aging crude oil

With increasing use of chemical oil displacement agents in tertiary recovery and the application of various demulsifiers for crude oil dehydration, a large amount of aging crude oil containing a high ratio of water is produced, and it is very difficult for processing and utilisation. In this article, we chose aging crude oil samples from a union station in an oilfield in China. Sample composition was analysed to demonstrate that the key of aging crude oil dehydration is the removal of solid impurities. Thus, an efficient method of combining heating and chemical treatments was developed to treat aging crude oil. It includes two steps: The first step is washing of aging crude oil with hot water with sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate; the second step is chemical demulsification of the above mixture with hydrochloric acid and sodium chloride solution. The result showed that 2.9% of solid impurities and 29.2% of water were removed in the first step; 27.2% of oil, 24.3% of water, and 3.47% of solid impurities in the aging crude oil were recycled in the second step. A total 87.07% of aging crude oil could be solved with this method. The present two-step treatment method can ensure that the dehydration process runs normally and efficiently in the union station, making it a promising method in the recycling of aging crude oil.