Reduction of total acid number (TAN) of naphthenic acid (NA) using supercritical water for reducing corrosion problems of oil refineries

CATEGORY: CORROSION
Fuel, Volume 94, April 2012, Pages 620–623
Reduction of total acid number (TAN) of naphthenic acid (NA) using supercritical water for reducing corrosion problems of oil refineries
Pradip Chandra Mandal, Wahyudiono, Mitsuru Sasaki, Motonobu Goto
a Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University
Abstract
The presence of naphthenic acid (NA) in crude oil leads to corrosion problems in oil refineries. Authors describe a study to reduce total acid number (TAN) from NA in an environmentally benign way, suppressing the solid deposition using supercritical water (SCW).
Experimental results revealed that TAN removal was 83% at a temperature of 490 °C, WPP of 45 MPa and reaction time of 90 min. The TAN removal followed first order kinetics, with Arrhenius parameters of activation energy 66 ± 4 kJ/mol and a pre-exponential factor (1.4 ± 0.2) × 105 s−1. Solid deposition was drastically reduced at WPP of 45 MPa. These results suggest that SCW is capable of reduction of TAN from NA with no use of catalyst or additives.
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