WO2006097792A2

WO2006097792A2 - Crude oil and oil products treatment method

Info

Publication number: WO2006097792A2
Application number: PCT/IB2005/004160
Authority: WO
Inventors: Konstantin Koval; Henry Teysseyre; David Large; Edward Clive Rumens
Original assignee: Neftekhimservice Llc; Laroute S.A.
Priority date: 2004-11-16
Filing date: 2005-11-15
Publication date: 2006-09-21
Also published as: RU2267517C1; WO2006071134A1; WO2006097792A3

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application are directed to methods and systems for treatment of ciude oil and/or oil products, as well as crude oil and oil products produced therefrom. In one embodiment, a method and system include injection of one or more additives into a flow of crude oil and/or oil product to a transportation vessel at a substantially uniform flow rate substantially in accordance with the formula: additive flow rate (kg/hr) = crude oil/oil-product loading rate (t/hr) * additive content (kg/t), based on a predetermined resulting performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product.

Description

CRUDE OILAND OIL PRODUCTS TREATMENT METHOD

Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of treating crude oil and oil products, and more particularly, to methods of treating oil and/or oil products prior to transportation to a consumer according to one or more customized performance parameters.

Background of the Invention

There exist a number of methods for the treatment of crude oil and oil products by means of introduction of different additives into crude oil and oil products transported by pipeline. The known technical solutions are aimed at solving the problems of transporting crude oil and oil products by pipeline, and are generally related to the hydraulic resistance and decrease of flow due to such resistance (e.g., see Russian Federation patent document no. 2168108, F17D 1/16, published on May 27, 2001; crude oil/oil products rheological properties optimization, Russian Federation patent document no. 2111410, F17D 1/16, published on May 20, 1998; the increase of efficiency of crude oil transportation by pipelines, Russian Federation PCT 94039950, F17D 1/16, published on August 20, 1996; crude oil demulsification, Russian Federation patent document no. 2009163, ClOG 33/04, published on March 15, 1994; and the like; each of the forgoing herein incorporated by reference in their entirety).

However, these known methods do not ensure that certain crude oil and oil products performance properties are of a particular, predetermined specification requested by a customer/country (even those oil products manufactured at a refinery may not correspond to a customer/country specification). In addition, due to various reasons, crude oil/oil products quality may deteriorate during transportation by pipeline. Such reasons include accidental blending with other oil/oil-products, dirty pipeline and tare walls, increase of water content as a result of intermediate storage in shore tanks and treatment of highly viscous oil products with open steam etc. Thus, as a result, it is nearly impossible to export such crude oil/oil products from a port of loading (where such products are delivered by main pipelines or rail). One method is known of introducing additives into fuel during filling of ship's fuel tanks. (V.A. Somov, P.P. Botkin "Fuel for transport diesel engines ", Leningrad, "Sudpromgiz", 1963, pp. 293-296; herein incorporated by reference). However, such a method of additive introduction does not guarantee a homogeneous blending of the additive with the entire fuel volume. Therefore, a special mechanical mixing is required that is effected by way of a compulsory re-circulation of the fuel plus additive blend on board a carrying vessel.

Another method is known of introducing additives into fuel during its loading at a terminal by doping an additive into an empty, partially filled or a fully filled tank car (Reference Book, A.M.Danilov "Application of additives in motor car fuels", Moscow, "Khimiya", 2000, p. 192; herein incorporated by reference). But this method does not ensure a long life of the results achieved through blending fuel with additive, and after some time the doped additive would settle down to the tank's bottom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention present systems and methods for combining crude oil and/or oil products and an additive for a customized performance characteristic thereof.

Accordingly, in one embodiment of the present invention, a method for treatment of crude oil and/or oil products is provided and includes injecting one or more additives into a flow of crude oil and/or oil product at a substantially uniform flow rate substantially in accordance with the formula: additive flow rate (kg/hr) = crude oil/oil-product loading rate (t/hr) * additive content (kg/t), based on a predetermined resulting performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product. In another embodiment of the invention, a system for treatment of crude oil and/or oil products is provided and includes at least one tank, a pump station, an injection unit having a container including an additive for enhancing a performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product, and a tank-to-vessel loading pipeline. The pipeline transports the crude oil and/or oil products from the at least one tank to a vessel and the injection unit uniformly injects the additive into the pipeline in at least one portion of the pipeline according to a predetermined flow rate substantially in accordance with the formula: additive flow rate (kg/hr) = crude oil/oil-product loading rate (t/hr) * additive content (kg/t). The additive flow rate is in accordance with a predetermined resulting performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, a crude oil and/or oil product is provided having an included additive introduced into the crude oil and/or oil product by means of the method according to claim 1.

These and other embodiments, objects and advantage of the invention will become more evident by the following detailed description and attached drawings (a brief description of which is outlined below).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing illustrating the scheme of a method of treatment of crude oil/oil products in port according to some of the embodiments of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a first "Certificate of Quality" report for additivation effect according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a second "Certificate of Quality" report for additivation effect according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a third "Certificate of Quality" report for additivation effect according to one embodiment of the invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

An object of the embodiments of the present invention is to improve crude oil and oil products performance properties by means of increasing the efficiency of treating crude oil and oil products with additives at loading ports. This object may be achieved according to one of the embodiments of the present invention with a method of treatment of crude oil/oil products by the injection of additives into crude oil/oil products, hi particular, additives used to alter performance properties of crude oil/oil products are supplied into a shore-to-vessel crude oil/oil-product loading pipeline during loading of a tanker vessel. The additive content is preferably based on a required value of a particular performance property of the crude oil/oil-product cargo being treated. Moreover, the estimated injection rate of such additive is preferably in proportion to the product loading rate. Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing illustrating a scheme of such method of treatment of crude oil/oil products in port according to this and some of the other embodiments of the present invention.

The proposed method allows control of the process of additivation proceeding from the requirement to obtain necessary performance properties of the treated crude oil/oil- products (e.g., based on a customer's requirement) and (preferably) based on the tanker vessel loading rate. Since any alteration of the injected additive content is directly related to modification of the value of the particular performance property of the crude oil/oil-product cargo being treated, the required value of the performance property being up-graded is determined by the respective content of the additive being injected. Supply of the additive at the injection rate regulated proportionally to the flow rate of crude oil/oil-products via shore- to-vessel pipeline loading allows a constant "fed additive-to-product pumped" ratio to be maintained. This ensures a homogeneous blending of additive with crude oil/oil products directly in the loading pipeline. In some embodiments, a final blending of additive with crude oil/oil products may occur in the vessel's tanks where a product's stream leaving the loading pipeline is characterized by increased turbulence leading to additional, intensive mass-transfer between the additive and product treated. This results in a better blending and ensures a homogeneous distribution of additive throughout the entire volume of crude oil/oil-products loaded into a tanker vessel. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the proposed method allows effective mixing of additives with crude oil/oil-products without using any additional mixers, and may also ensure the preservation of the stability of the result achieved.

The stability of the additivation effect according to some of the embodiments of the present invention has been confirmed by tested, experimental use of one of the method embodiments in the treatment of a shipment of gasoil with a depressor additive at the St.

Petersburg Oil Terminal. The resultant modified gasoil performance properties were then tested by an independent international inspection and certification company "SGS"

(accredited with the RF State Standards Committee) and entitled to conduct cargo expertise and issue certificates (see Figs. 2-4). Comparative measurements of the cold filter plugging point of that gasoil have produced the following results :

• untreated gasoil in shore tanks : - 9°C;

• ^"treated gasoil during loading : - 22°C;

• treated gasoil after 7 days in the port of destination before discharge : - 22°C. The above data indicates that the additivation effect has been totally preserved after transportation (of the treated product) in the tanker vessel's tanks. The test results are given in Figs. 2-4.

Different types of additives can be used with embodiments of the present invention, including, but not limited to, depressor additives for gasoils and fuel oils, lubricity improvers for gasoils, H₂S scavengers for fuel oils and crude oil, demulsifiers crude oils and oil products, cetane improvers, octane improvers, conductivity improvers and others. Examples of the forgoing include TOTAL'S (France): ethylene vinyl acetate based 7300-Depressor Additive, fatty acids C₂ - Cl 8 based PC30-Lubricity Improver and formaldehyde methanol and polymethyleneglycol aqueous solution based ASB 50-H₂S Scavenger. The above additives in no way limit the use of other known additives by the proposed method. Examples

Example 1. Treatment of gasoil by Depressor Additive.

Gasoil of- 9⁰C Cold Filter Plugging Point (CFPP) is supplied from shore tanks 1 via pump station 2 by shore-to-vessel loading pipeline 3 to berth 4 and pumped into the tanks of tanker vessel 5 under loading. During loading of tanker vessel 5, additive is supplied from mobile injection unit 6 (a tank-container with additive or a special vehicle carrying additive tanks, a flow meter and necessary pumping equipment) and injected into pipeline 3 through injection one or more points 7 and 8 specially provided on pipeline 3 running across the oil terminal. A uniform flow rate of additive may be determined by the formula:

Flow Rate (kg/hr) = Loading Rate (t/hr) * Additive Content (kg/t)

set by the pump's feed stepless control, dependant on the gasoil loading rate to be monitored by the flow meter's readings. The additive content may be set based on the required value of CFPP in accordance with Table 4.

Table 4 Kg/hr - kilograms/hour; t/hr - metric tons per hour; kg/t - kilograms per metric ton. Example 2. Treatment of gasoil by Lubricity Improver.

During loading of tanker vessel 5, additive is supplied out of the additive tank loaded on board of tanker vessel 5 beforehand and injected directly into tanker vessel's 5 cargo manifold through measuring instruments' points provided upstream on tanker vessel's 5 cargo manifold. The additive is injected by a dosage pump driven by a compressed air system the air for which is supplied from tanker vessel's main. The pump inlet is connected via flow meter with the discharge valve of the additive tank positioned on tanker vessel's 5 deck. The outlet nozzle of the dosage pump is connected to an injection point on tanker vessel's 5 cargo manifold. A uniform flow rate of additive is determined per the formula:

Flow Rate (kg/hr) = Loading Rate (t/hr) * Additive Content (kg/t)

set by the pump's feed stepless control dependant on the gasoil loading rate in tanker vessel's 5 cargo manifold to be monitored by the flow meter's readings. The additive content is set based on the required diameter of the Wear Scar (a parameter speaking of the gasoil' s lubricity properties) in accordance with Table 5.

Table 5 Example 3. Treatment of fuel oil by H₂S Scavenger.

Fuel oil of above 2 % H₂S content is supplied from shore tanks 1 to pump station 2 by shore-to-vessel loading pipeline 3 to berth 4 and pumped into the tanks of tanker vessel 5 under loading. During loading of tanker vessel 5, additive is supplied from mobile injection unit 6 (a tank-container with additive or a special vehicle carrying additive tanks, a flow meter and necessary pumping equipment) and injected into pipeline 3 through injection points 7 and 8 specially provided on pipeline 3 running across the oil terminal. A uniform flow rate of additive is determined per the formula:

Flow Rate (kg/hr) = Loading Rate (t/hr) * Additive Content (kg/t)

set by the pump's feed stepless control dependant on the fuel oil loading rate to be monitored by the flow meter's readings. The additive content is set based on the required value of H₂S content in the fuel oil with Table 6.

Table 6

The use of some of the embodiments of the proposed invention ensures the preservation of the stability of the additivation result during at least 60 days (for example). Table 7 shows comparative life-times of the stable additivation results achieved by the proposed invention method of treatment of crude oil and oil products and other known methods of introduction of additives into tanker vessels' fuel tanks (V.A. Somov, P.P. Botkin "Fuel for transport diesel engines ", Leningrad, "Sudpromgiz", 1963, pp. 293-296; herein incorporated by reference).

Table 7 The use of some of the embodiments of the present invention allows tanker loading and crude oil/oil products treatment simultaneously and, as a result, obtain shipment crude oil/oil products with the performance properties adjusted to the buyer's requirements ready to ship and stable for several weeks (for example). Due to the ease of application, this method can be utilized in any port involved in crude oil/oil product shipments. Although particular embodiments have been disclosed herein in detail, this has been done by way of example for purposes of illustration only, and is not intended to be limiting with respect to the scope of the appended claims, which follow. In particular, it is contemplated by the inventors that various substitutions, alterations, and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. Other aspects, advantages, and modifications are considered to be within the scope of the following claims. The claims presented are representative of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Other, unclaimed embodiments and inventions are also contemplated. The inventors reserve the right to pursue such inventions in later claims.

Claims

We claim:

1. A method for treatment of crude oil and/or oil products comprising injection of one or more additives into a flow of crude oil and/or oil product at a substantially uniform flow rate substantially in accordance with the formula: additive flow rate (kg/hr) = crude oil/oil-product loading rate (t/hr) * additive content (kg/t), based on a predetermined resulting performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flow comprises a flow to a transportation vessel for transporting the crude oil and/or oil product to a destination.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flow comprises a flow from shore-to- vessel via a loading pipeline.

4. The method for treatment according to claim 1, wherein the additive comprises a depressor, the additive content is between 0.01 (kg/t) and about 0.50 (kg/t), and the loading rate is about 1000 (t/hr), depending upon a decrease of cold-filter plugging point.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the additive content is between about 0.05 (kg/t) and about 0.4 (kg/t) at the loading rate of 1000 (t/hr), depending upon a desired decrease of cold-filter plugging point.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additive comprises a lubricity improvement material, the additive content is between about 0.01 (kg/t) and about 0.15 (kg/t) and the loading rate is about 1500 (t/hr), depending upon a desired reduction of wear scar diameter.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the additive content is between about 0.025 (kg/t) and about 0.1 (kg/t) at the loading rate of about 1500 (t/hr), depending upon a desired reduction of wear scar diameter.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additive comprises an H₂S scavenger, the additive content is between about 0.05 (kg/t) and about 0.70 (kg/t) and the loading rate is about 800 (t/hr), depending upon a desired decrease in H₂S content.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the additive content is between about 0.1 (kg/t) and about 0.6 (kg/t), depending upon a desired decrease in H₂S content.

10. A system for treatment of crude oil and/or oil products, comprising: at least one tank a pump station; an injection unit having a container including an additive for enhancing a performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product; and a loading pipeline, the pipeline transporting crude oil and/or oil products from the at least one tank to a vessel, wherein the injection unit uniformly injects the additive into the pipeline in at least one portion of the pipeline according to a predetermined flow rate substantially in accordance with the formula: additive flow rate (kg/hr) = crude oil/oil-product loading rate (t/hr) * additive content (kg/t), wherein the additive flow rate is in accordance with a predetermined resulting performance characteristic of the crude oil and/or oil product.

11. The system according to claim 10, further comprising a berth, and wherein the pipeline transports oil and/or oil products from the at least one tank to the berth, and where the oil and/or oil products are then transported onto the vessel.

12. The system according to claim 10, further comprising a vessel.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein the additive comprises a depressor, the additive content is between 0.01 (kg/t) and about 0.50 (kg/t), and the loading rate is about 1000 (t/hr), depending upon a decrease of cold- filter plugging point.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the additive content is between about 0.05 (kg/t) and about 0.4 (kg/t) at the loading rate of 1000 (t/hr), depending upon a desired decrease of cold-filter plugging point.

15. The system according to claim 10, wherein the injection unit includes a flow meter and a pump.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein the additive comprises a lubricity improvement material, the additive content is between about 0.01 (kg/t) and about 0.15 (kg/t) and the loading rate is about 1500 (t/hr), depending upon a desired reduction of wear scar diameter.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the additive content is between about 0.025 (kg/t) and about 0.1 (kg/t) at the loading rate of about 1500 (t/hr), depending upon a desired reduction of wear scar diameter.

18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the additive comprises an H₂S scavenger, the additive content is between about 0.05 (kg/t) and about 0.70 (kg/t) and the loading rate is about 800 (t/hr), depending upon a desired decrease in H₂S content.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the additive content is between about 0.1 (kg/t) and about 0.6 (kg/t), depending upon a desired decrease in H₂S content.

20. A crude oil and/or oil product having an included additive introduced into the crude oil and/or oil product by means of the method according to claim 1.