© 2005, Sociedad Química de México Optimum Temperature in the Electrostatic Desalting of Maya Crude Oil

Abstract. The main variables that impact the crude oil desalting process were analyzed by developing mathematical models that rep-resent the variation of Maya crude oil density, conductivity and vis-cosity as functions of temperature. An increase in process tempera-ture has two opposite effects. First, a decrease in oil density and vis-cosity implies a significant increase in the settling rate of water droplets within the oil phase; which allow for a greater amount of oil to be processed. This increases the profit resulting from performing oil desalting. On the other hand, crude oil conductivity increases exponentially with temperature, which implies a higher rate of power consumption. A simulation model was developed to determine the optimum temperature at which a maximum economic benefit occurs. It was concluded that an optimum temperature occurs at 135oC