Desalting is a water-washing operation performed initially at the production field and thereafter at the refinery site for additional crude oil cleanup. Desalting is a water-washing operation performed initially at the production field and thereafter at the refinery site for additional crude oil cleanup. Crude oil often contains fine saline water droplets, salt crystals, suspended solids and traces of metals. Large amounts of dissolved salts can affect the crude refining process quite significantly. It can, for instance, foul heat exchangers, block pipe lines and generally affects the performance of other refinery equipment. In order to avoid salts-related problems, salts must be removed from the crude oil for this reason and to prevent corrosion, plugging, and fouling of equipment, electrical desalting plants are often installed in crude oil production units. This paper investigates the effect of four factors (density, freshwater injection, heating, and mixing) on the efficiency of the dehydration/desalting process for Iranian crude oil.
