Downstream

Tank bottoms

Tank bottom sludges contain a high percentage of oil that can be recovered as valuable products; not to mention the economic and environmental aspects of reduced waste volumes. These products are generally difficult to handle due to their high solids and emulsion content and high viscosity. The slop oils can vary in their composition and contain 10-70 % oil, 30-90 % water and 5-20 % solids. The oil viscosity can be very high and reach values of up to 600 cSt / 50°C.  The specific gravity of the oil (oil density) can vary from 0.8 to 0.96 g / ml.

Furthermore, low pH values and high chloride concentrations are additional challenges, and factors such as abrasive particles (sand), organic solids and the presence of asphaltenes must also be taken into account. If this sludge is not treated on-site, it must either be incinerated or sent to specialized treatment plants for further processing / disposal. Since this waste is also environmentally hazardous and difficult to transport, disposal for the oil industry is costly, driving a high demand for services that are able to process tank bottom sludge efficiently. Tank bottom oil treatment also recovers hydrocarbons that would otherwise be lost, which creates an additional value.

As an alternative to the cost-intensive disposal of slop oil, GEA has developed a method to recycle the oils in an environmentally friendly way. The advantages for customers: added value through 80-95 % recovery of salable hydrocarbons and reduction of the total disposal costs. The technical solution for recovering the valuable oil and minimizing its environmental impact is to combine mechanical separation technology in several stages with heating and the improvement of the separation effect by chemicals.

GEA-inzichten

Lemgo plant building

Verleden en toekomst komen samen in het vooruitstrevende stadsverwarmingsproject...

Theo van der Zwaag from the Netherlands stands in front of a GEA automated feeding robot.

Automatisering maakt het verschil voor koeien, mensen en planeet

CIAL Chile Employees stand in front of a line of defrosters from GEA.

GEA’s ontdooioplossing succesvol bij CIAL in Chili

Ontvang nieuws van GEA

Blijf op de hoogte van GEA’s innovaties en verhalen door u in te schrijven op nieuws van GEA.

Neem contact met ons op

Wij zijn er om u te helpen! Met slechts een paar gegevens kunnen we uw vraag beantwoorden.