A gas oil separation plant (GOSP) and method for receiving crude oil from a wellhead and removing gas, water, and salt from the crude oil, and discharging export crude oil. The GOSP includes online analyzer instruments for performing online analysis of salt concentration in multiple streams in the GOSP. Based in part on the online analysis, the salt content in the export crude oil may be determined and the flowrate for wash water supplied to the desalter vessel may be specified.

A process id disclosed for upgrading tars, typically those resulting from hydrocarbon refining processes, to products suitable for other uses, such as blending with other hydrocarbons to provide low-sulfur fuel oils or Emission Control Area-acceptable fuels. A low-sulfur hydrocarbon product obtained from the process is also disclosed.

Nowadays, one of the major problems of the oil industry is the presence of large amounts of water and salts, which cannot be efficiently removed by conventional dehydrating polymers. In addition, the acid stimulation operations of petroleum wells cause the chemical degradation of demulsifiers such as polyethers and phenolic resins, reducing drastically their efficiency as water and salt removers. Based on aforementioned, a series of new copolymers has been developed; these copolymers are combinations of an acrylic and an aminoacrylic monomer and they are synthesized by semi-continuous emulsion polymerization (under starved feed conditions), which ensures both the homogeneity of the different chains as well as the randomness of the monomers distribution. The solutions of one of these random copolymers have shown an efficiency similar or superior to combinations of two or three block copolymers (formulations), when they are applied in light or heavy crude oils. The acrylic-aminoacrylic copolymers show good performance as water/oil emulsion breaker initiators, coalescence agents of water droplets and clarifiers of the remaining aqueous phase. In addition, the chemical structure of the acrylic copolymers confers resistance to degradation induced by abrupt pH changes when acid stimulation operations of wells are performed.

A computer-implemented method includes controlling water separation in a hydrocarbon stream flowing through a separator train including one or more separator vessels located upstream of a dehydrator by manipulating a demulsifier flowrate added to the separator train by: receiving data from a real-time process test of the separation train, estimating model fit parameters to the data to generate a water separation profile (WSP) correlating water draw-off and demulsifier flowrate for the separation train, determining a maximum and a minimum demulsifier flowrate from the WSP, receiving, from an operator, a separation performance for a target water separation value entering the dehydrator downstream from the separator train, and adjusting the demulsifier flowrate according to the WSP to achieve the target water separation entering the dehydrator.

Described are direct flame impingement shields for fire tubes in heater treaters which reduce corrosion of the fire tubes. The direct flame impingement shield is removable and replaceable. The direct flame impingement shield may be formed from a variety of types of stainless steel or other corrosion resistant material.

A computer-implemented method includes controlling water separation in a hydrocarbon stream flowing through a separator train including one or more separator vessels located upstream of a dehydrator by adjusting a flowrate of demulsifier added to the separator train by receiving data from a real-time process test of the separation train, quantifying a demulsifier inertia value from the process data, estimating model fit parameters to the process data to generate a water separation profile (WSP) correlating water draw-off and demulsifier flowrate for the separation train, and during operations, modifying the demulsifier flowrate according to the WSP and according to the inertia value to achieve a received target water separation value for the stream entering the dehydrator.

A computer-implemented method includes controlling water separation in a hydrocarbon stream flowing through a separator train including one or more separator vessels located upstream of a dehydrator by manipulating a demulsifier flowrate added to the separator train by: receiving data from a real-time process test of the separation train, estimating model fit parameters to the data to generate a water separation profile (WSP) correlating water draw-off and demulsifier flowrate for the separation train, determining a maximum and a minimum demulsifier flowrate from the WSP, receiving, from an operator, a separation performance for a target water separation value entering the dehydrator downstream from the separator train, and adjusting the demulsifier flowrate according to the WSP to achieve the target water separation entering the dehydrator.

A process and a system for conversion of a hydrocarbonaceous feed comprising at least 10 ppmw and less than 10000 ppmw of one or more halides, and at least 20 ppmw and less than 10000 ppmw organically bound nitrogen, to a hydrocarbon product stream by hydrotreatment, in the presence of a material catalytically active in hydrotreatment and an amount of hydrogen, wherein said hydrocarbon product stream comprises an amount of ionic halides and an amount of ammonia, said process including: a) separating in a first separation step at a first separation temperature the mixed product stream to provide an overhead stream and a bottoms stream, b) combining the overhead stream with an amount of wash water and c) separating in a second separation step the combined overhead stream and wash water in a non-polar stream of hydrocarbon product and a polar stream of wash water comprising ammonium halides.

There is described a process for producing biodiesel and related products from mixtures. There is also described a process for producing precursors and feedstock materials for producing biodiesel and related products. The processes use esterification and trans-esterification, separation and purification. Other process steps such as acidification and distillation can also be used.

The present invention relates to a method for reducing the cloud point of a Fischer-Tropsch derived fraction to below 0 C., wherein the method comprises subjecting the Fischer-Tropsch derived fraction to a cloud point reduction step comprising mixing the Fischer-Tropsch derived fraction, which comprises more than 80 wt. % of paraffins and 90 wt. % of saturates, with a solvent mixture (16), wherein the solvent mixture (16) comprises a paraffinic naphtha fraction (7) and a co-solvent (15); and subjecting the solvent treatment mixture (23) to a solvent de-waxing step (17).