Response surface methodology for optimizing crude oil desalting unit performance in iraq

Emulsions in petroleum production pose challenges like equipment corrosion, pipeline pressure drops, pumping costs, and catalyst poisoning, leading to increased production costs and technical and environmental issues. The complexity of emulsions necessitates using cost-effective and efficient de-emulsifiers for effective treatment. Desalting units are often installed in crude oil production units to remove water-soluble salts from an oil stream. To optimize this process, the desalting unit should be modeled. The research employs Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to analyze the efficiency of the desalting unit based on various input parameters. The result shows that the mentioned model agrees with the experimental data. The experiments were designed using response surface methodology; these parameters and their interaction are significant, and determination coefficient R² for water content and salt concentration equal 0.9246 and 0.9901 in respective in addition difference between R_adj and R_pred less than 0.2 for two responses, R_adj and R_pred for water content 0.8491 and0.6082 and salt concentration 0.9803 and 0.9464, respectively. The result revealed that minimum water content of 0.03%(V/V) and salt concentration of 85 ppm, which agreement with predicted responses, was 0.05%v/v and 70 ppm, respectively, when the temperature was 45.1 °C, API 29, initial water content was 2.07 and initial salt concentration was 5344.04, respectively.