F-21 Fouling Assessment of a Desalted Crude Oil
Significant design improvements to our test sections have enabled us to characterize the fouling potential of a select, desalted crude oil (No. 18). Using the results of intube, high temperature testing on carbon steel test pipes and chemical characterizations of the crude oil before and after testing and of the fouling deposits, we deduced both the fouling mechanism and the ways that the fouling tendencies varied with bulk and wall temperatures and flow rate. The dominant fouling mechanism for this crude oil is corrosion, to which the residual salt content in this desalted crude oil contributed. Moreover, we identified two literature models that reasonably predict the early fouling resistance as a function of time and thermal-hydraulic conditions.