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US 12,319,894 B2Granted
Compositions and methods for removing sludge from oil storage tanks
AssigneeLocus Solutions Ipco, LLC
InventorsSean Farmer, Ken Alibek
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Abstract
The subject invention provides microbe-based products, as well as their use to improve oil production and oil transmission and refining by, for example, remediating the disposable layers in oil tanks and other oil storage units. The subject invention can be used to remediate a sludge layer and/or other dissolved solid layers that form in oil storage tanks. Advantageously, the subject invention can decrease the cost of mechanical remediation of disposable layers, and aid in the recovery of more pure hydrocarbons from crude fluids.
Claims7
A method for cleaning sludge from an oil storage tank, the method comprising:
- applying a cleaning composition comprising one or more microorganisms, one or more biosurfactants, and one or more solvents to a storage tank having sludge therein;
- mixing the composition with the sludge to form an emulsion;
- and
- allowing the emulsion to sit for 3 to 24 hours, until three separate phase layers form in the tank,
- wherein the three phase layers are a top oil layer, a middle water layer and a bottom solids layer, wherein the one or more microorganisms comprise inactive Starmerella bombicola and/or Wickerhamomyces anomalus, wherein the one or more biosurfactants comprise sophorolipids and/or rhamnolipids, and wherein the one or more solvents comprise ethanol, methanol and/or isopropyl alcohol.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.