TANK CLEANING – THE CRUDE OIL SLUDGE PROBLEM

The DS Jet Mixing System offered by Allerion Oilfield Services can prevent the build-up of crude oil sludge crude oils have the propensity to separate into the heavier and lighter hydrocarbons from which they are composed. This is often aggravated by cool temperatures, the venting of volatile components from the crude, and by the static condition of fluid during storage. The heavy ends that separate from the crude oil and are deposited on the bottoms of storage vessels are known as ‘tank bottoms’, or ‘sludge’. It is a combination of hydrocarbons, sediment, paraffin and water. Sludge can accelerate corrosion, reduce storage capacity and disrupt operations. The paraffin component of sludge forms when molecules of individual straight-chain hydrocarbons bond together due to weak-induced dipole forces. These dipole forces are called London Dispersion Forces, or Van der Waal bonds, and are responsible for like-molecular aggregation. Agitation is commonly used to combat the formation of sludge in static volumes of crude oil. This comes from the theory that it is possible to introduce sufficient kinetic energy into the system to retard or prevent the formation of...