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High content of solid particles in crude oil or Delayed Coker feed can cause accelerated fouling in the furnace.
Has anyone experience on how to measure solid particles concentration and particle size distribution in crude and/or vacuum residue? I have seen the use of laser difraction or particle counter for other products (kerosene, lubricants, etc) to measure both total content and particle size, but I am not sure if this could be succesfully applied to vacuum residue.
What is the maximum solid concentration recommended to avoid fouling issues?
What is the maximum solid particle size recommended?
 
Answers
26/07/2018 A: NS Murthy, Suez, murthy.ns.ext@suez.com
In our previous organization, we were trying to assess the potential causes that drop run length of coker charge heaters. As such the filterable solids are not significant contributor to this issue. More important is to measure the impurities like Na, Ca, type of asphaltenes, etc. Contact your nearest Suez representative to offer a comprehensive solution..
13/07/2018 A: Prakash Pimparkar, Environmental Consulting Services , prakash.pimparkar@yahoo.in
There may not be online measurement device or instrument as most of them work on the principle of light attenuation and crude will be opaque. Best possible way will be to use a solvent (BTXE) to dissolve and dilute a known quantity of crude and filter it to measure the solid contents.
13/07/2018 A: Krishna Rao Pulugurti, Retired/Consultant, pkrao2012@yahoo.com
Use ASTM D 473 Sediment by extraction
12/07/2018 A: Sridhar Balakrishnan, Bharat Oman Refineries Limited , laksrid@yahoo.com
There is no particulate contamination or concentration quantification methods for vacuum residue. If you can perform filterability residue test of vacuum residue with toluene. You can get an idea qualitatively what type of particulates are found on the filter paper. To an extent this will help.